Heart of Darkness
by Cyricist001
Summary: Louise wanted a divine, beautiful, wise and powerful servant but many entities across the multiverse have those characteristics, and not all are benevolent. Meet the necromancer.


**Heart of Darkness**

**The creator of this fanfic owns nothing**

**Multi-crossover starting with Forgotten Realms & Familiar of Zero**

**Written by Cyricist001 (apology for the grammar in advance)**

**Chapter 1. Shadow of the Void**

_**Netheril Empire, City of Moonreef– Viceroys Palace**_

Valiar watched the city from the balcony of his room. He could hardly believe that a city this prosperous was governed by a servant of the Mad God. Not four decades have passed since Aeron Blackheart took control of Port Last -or what was left of it- turning it into a city that surpassed even Waterdeep – Moonreef, the crown of the North.

He was not that familiar with the Viceroy of Moonreef, he gained information mostly from rumors or by questioning the older residence of the city. But what he did know was that Aeron was...strange even by the standards of his insane kin.

The only written text he found on the city and its ruler was the property of the dwarven loremaster that wasn't willing to part with the book, but was able to read the important events.

The whole region surrounding the city was once infested with undead that plagued these parts for centuries after the fall of the King of Shadows, it was unlikely that there would be a lot of people who would decide to settle in this inhospitable land. But that made no difference to Aeron, he raised an army of undead to take this land by force against all who opposed him. The war lasted for six years before the last of the hostiles fell to the unrelenting march of his armies. With the end of the conflict Aeron turned to strengthening the claimed territories. The skeletons worked day and night in the new stone quarries that were established to provide construction materials for the numerous projects that the new ruler planed. First was a large harbor that would allow trade to start again, and the ruins of the old settlement had to be cleared.

Normally projects of such magnitude were costly even for large cities, but the problem of craftsman was more urgent then financial needs, the dead were a good enough work force but only for basic jobs.

All the skilled labor was hired by Aeron personally, he even bought slaves with desired skills giving them the opportunity to pay for their new freedom by working it off.

A good part of the freed slaves were dwarfs, by luck or by dwarven intuition one of them stumbled on a entrance to the Underdark. After exploring the underground caverns and tunnels for a week it was confirmed that they were rich in iron and dark Iron ore. Aeron proposed a deal, the dwarves would form a new clan and build a underground forge city, the surface city would use its ships to sell its products not only on the Sword Coast, but also in the Netherese Empire. They would form a single army only dedicated to the protection of the home territory and a council that would help in governing the city.

The dwarfs were skeptical at first, but considering that they would keep all the profit from the trade not including the shipping fees they accepted. Soon the army of the dead was purging the corridors of any life allowing the dwarfs to place heavy adamantium gates on key points in the conquered caverns. With the Iron Halls established the next step was to construct furnaces, Aeron suggested instead of building furnaces and smelters to construct a permanent portal over a river of magma in the elemental plane of fire –naturally warded against its denizen's. One of the greatest boons for the city was the arrival of the dwarven Artificier Oglen Silverbeard, who was elected by the dwarfs to be the king of the new clan.

With the dwarfs starting to shape their new home and attract additional kin from around the North, Aeron focused on finding some skilled shipwrights and sailors. That proved a far more difficult task since both Luskan and Neverwinter were only shadows of their former glory and good sailors left ages ago.

Visiting Luskan Aeron encountered pirates from Ruathym, a deal was made and the northener dragonships were enlisted into his service. New ships were put into production and in 3 months the first caravels and a few carracs were seaworthy.

The city grew fast, but most of the houses and shops that were constructed remained empty. The promise of a better future and security in these dark times lured steadily people into the city seeking shelter, unfortunately only a few of them had any needed skills.

The undead were used as patrols to ensure safety but mostly they frightened away refuges and possible visitors. Without the needed population Moonreef had to relay mostly on them for patroling its borders. That changed when Aeron made a pact with some groups of returning Moon and Wood elf's who agreed to live near the new city. The Wood elf's took over patrolling the Neverwinter woods which they settled after Aeron launched a large undead army to push the Thayan remnants out. The campaign was deemed a success, and elven rangers and druids were charged with patroling and expanding the woodland border that now protected the city.

The Moon elf's were tasked with forming a mage guild for strengthening the cities arcane power. Aeron together with the help of elven High mages and human wizards was able to create a large quantity of proteum that was turned into crystals. Those crystals were then used to construct a flying city district - Caelumurbis – that held the magic academy, the residential mage area, parks, stockpiles of crafting components and the skydocks for the cities skyships that were used for inland trade.

To strengthen the sea side of the city Aeron offered the Merfolk, Sirens and Tritons to settle near the city to provide mutual protection from the Sahuagin and help with trade, in particular with the mining of Aarbintite from the seafloor as well as fishing. In exchange they would gain magic items.

_That was sixteen years ago _Thought Valiar _the merfolk were the last group that were invited to live in Moonreef, after that only people with needed skill were allowed to settle here._

He could understand that the local population wanted to stop the cities expansion but to refuse to shelter the poor souls that suffered in the harsh world outside the Neverwinter woods was unforgivable.

A skyship cast its shadow as it passed over him. It was a beautiful vessel, powered by a proteum crystal the ship carried resources from the mining outpost in the Spine of the World mountains or from the Shade Enclave. Its beak was adorned with a golden eagle, its wings spread wide.

The ships shadow passed leaving a strong scent of cinnamon in the air, it was quickly replaced with the usual smell of sea. Unlike the skyship that past him the sea faring ships were lazily approaching the harbor. Moonreef was a alluring blend of white marble, fountains, canals and green trees that are planted on every unclaimed patch of land.

_Perhaps when my business is done I will be able to explore the city more._

(Knock-Knock)

Valiar turned around „Enter"

A dwarven guard entered his room „The council is ready to see ya"

He nodded „Thank you" He followed the dwarf out of the room and the diplomats quarters in the cities palace to the atrium with a impluvium in the center.

It was all made of white marble, with reliefs of nature and real flora covering some of the columns around them. In the center of the impluvium stood a small tree, it emitted a nice fragrance, somehow he felt refreshed his thoughts more focused, clearer. _Probably a magic tree_.

„Pardon me, but I never met the Viceroy, what kind of person is he?"

The dwarf snorted „Hell if I know, if I would have to describe him – strange would be the word, and that's a understatement. I respect him for what he accomplished, but he still has some loose rocks up there."

„So...how do you prepare to meet a mentally unstable ruler?"

„Have no idea, never met one beside Aeron, but if you want me advice then act natural" the dwarf replied „Names Dagran by the way"

„Valiar Silvermane...so how about the other councilors?"

„Lets see, Archmage and Sky district leader Erelan Moonsong is wise, calm and careful. High assassin and spy mistress Eris Entreri is a professional of her trade, she's calm, observant and lethal if ye get on her bad side. General Lagmar Ironbeard is on the other hand more the acting sort, the general is a genius fighter and strategist, he's more punch ye in the face and ask questions later sort of dwarf. Sea District leader Adriana Elamar a half-merfolk is a kind, caring person...when shes not with Aeron making pranks on people. I still don't know how they replaced all of me clans ale with fruit juice. They are bloody demons when together I tell ya, demons! Now where was I, oh yes. Forge district leader Artificier Oglen is serious, calm and careful, best person to ask for help in my opinion. Asylum district leader Tyghga..."

„Pardon, did you say Asylum?"

„Aye I have, its the nickname for the human residential part. Aeron was the first who named it since there were always some problems over there, and the name stuck. Its the same for the other districts Sea ,Sky ,Forge ,Asylum ,Forest only the Docks and the Palace have no nicknames. Now where was I?"

„The Asylum district leader"

„Oh yea, that would be Tyghgari Snowhair, shes a friendly lass...then again as a half-lunar I don't know if I should be calling her a lass. There is the Docks district leader and High merchant Tadeos Undertree, the halfling is a good sort but sometime hes to greedy for his own good, and I'm not talking about money. Erelan had to make a special potion to hasten metabolism so he could get through the palace gates. Forest district leader and Great druidess Sylvana Greenleaf, she is wise and calm but likes to nag a lot about our wastefulness and that we eat to many animals. I mean if the Gods didn't want us to eat them, then why would they make them so tasty?! Don't you think so?"

Valiar wasn't really fine with the way the dwarf voiced it, but he agreed with the basic idea, food is a necessity, and meat is a important part of human (and dwarf) diet as much as any carrot or onion. He gave a nod.

„Of course you agree, any normal person would agree with me. Only the tree-huggers don't." The dwarf ranted.

„But back to the councilors. The last councilor is the Palace district leader and High cleric of Gond Happy69...don't look at me like that, Aeron gave him the name. Nice lad but has a habit of annoying people, he got that from Aeron also. He and Adriana are mostly together when she comes on land. He is a deceiver, his kin live with us in the mines, hard working bunch I must say, if they could drink beer they would be good dwarfs. And that's that, so ye shouldn't worry about them, they are all decent people."

„Strange, you mean there are more sentient deceivers in the city?"

„Ye bet, Aeron made them specifically to be sentient. They mostly live with us or the pointy ears since the Viceroy don't want them falling under bad influence, meaning human"

„I thought Aeron is human? How come he has such a negative view about his own race?"

„Don't take it personal, but I agree with him. Yer kind is easily corruptible, he knows that so he put a law that only a dwarf can be the general, and only a elf the Archmage. Keeps yer over ambitious kin at arms length".

„So what else can you tell me about Aeron?"

„Ufff...the viceroy is...well how to put it. He once summoned a balor to warm a cup of tea on his fires, pushed a guard out of the palace window for fun-he payed for his resurrection and a big bonus on his pay though, painted a smiley face on the sails of a pirate ship, voted for the legalization of blue mushrooms.."

„Blue mushrooms?"

„Nobody knows, but when somebody mention's them he always talks about how if we keeeep really still he can see our skeletons."

„...he is indeed mad" the man murmured

„He never denied it, hell if he did nobody would believe him. He rules the bloody city, pulls gold bars out of his arse and ye know what he does? He works as a cook in a Inn on the main fountain square."

„...you jest"

„No, I'm telling ye, the mans bloody nuts. But he's not all bad, he comes often down to the local orphanage to visit the kids, he brings them a lot of sweats and toys. Even worse he encourages them to play pranks on people. He took a poor lass to work in his Inn, and after a month she was proclaimed the partial owner."

Valiar narrowed his eyes „He didn't take advantage of her or?"

Shaking his head „No, as I understand it when people asked him he shrugged and commented that he felt like it, the same bloody answer when people asked him why he pushed the guard down."

„Wait if he is down at his Inn, why wait to be summoned by the council when you can see the viceroy there?"

„If yer only want to see him there's no problem, if yer wanting to discus business then he will not hear a word if not from the menu. Ye know, my brother sometimes gets the guard duty there, its something of a prize."

Valiar raised an eyebrow „The Inns popular?"

„Hahaha, ye can bet your arse it is, how many places do ye know where rulers make their subordinates food. But the point is Aeron is an amazing cook, he even taught Aria how to prepare his dishes since he's only there from 8 a.m to 13 p.m then he goes to the Palace and Aria takes over the place. My brother loves it there, food is great, and he gets free ale for keeping it safe. As long as he aint drunk, he can have all the liquid gold he wants, its heaven I tell ya. It has even tables out in the open if ye can believe it, ye can drink or eat and watch the life in the main square. The enchanted fountain, the sentient marble statues of the three Siren sisters. Their songs make even the most tense person relax, and at night it's the most visited romantic spot of the city."

„Then I will have to visit, what is the name of the Inn?"

„Tavineva, or Wintersnow"

„Anything else about him?"

The dwarf looked around a bit nervous „Its rumored that he be part of some organization named Legion, nobody knows much about them only that they hire mercenaries that are never seen again. No location, no names, no nothing" he whispered.

„Why would he be connected?"

„I told ya its only a rumor, mostly because he's a necromancer, they are always suspect".

Valiar was amazed that there were dwarf's this talkative, he always perceived them as gruff and of few words. On the other hand Dagran didn't know when to shut up. He talked about the city until they came before the door of the throne room/council chambers. On both sides was a dwarven elite guard, one of sixty expertly trained dwarven soldiers, equipped with the best magic arms, armor and items that the world can produce.

„Well lad, this is it. In ya go." The guards opened the doors to let Valiar in.

„Thank you Dagran" the doors closed behind leaving him in a large bright room. The Walls were covered with Ivy growth, and small streams of water were flowing from unseen cracks in the ceiling and vanishing into some non existing holes in the ground. The scent that dominated was a flowery sweet one, giving the impression that you were outdoors on a sunny summer day.

He spotted the councilors seated around a large wooden table, they were still debating something so he decided to wait until they finish.

XXXX

„Lagmar be reasonable, just because the elf's produced a large surplus of honey does not mean it will be used to produce more mead" the young woman with white hair and a red sorcerers robes commented calmly

„What else would ye do with it?" scoffed the balding dwarf in the heavy armor.

„We could always make almond pastries in honey sirup, or cinnamon honey glazed sticky buns or one of Arias baklava's" the halfling was almost drooling on the table ignoring the looks he received from the others.

„Actually, Lagmars suggestion was not bad. Me..." a graying dwarf was about to elaborate but was rudely interrupted.

„HA, You hear that Moonshine, I was right!"

„Peace Lagmar, as I was saying a larger part of the honey can be made into mead. Even if we don't find buyers now it can safely stay in storage. Sooner or later either we, the dwarfs of Mithrall Hall, Citadel Adbar or Sundabar will buy it off our hands. And as for the suggestion of councilor Tadeos, the remaining honey should be offered to the local traders, they will not only cover our markets demands but the bakeries will be able to gain more profit by reducing the material cost for their products, or they may drop prices for more purchases."

„That seems like a good course of action, now we only have to determine the price. What say you Sylvana?" asked an elf with long silver hair and purple wizard robes.

„The Teu-tel-quessir will give a pound of honey for 30 coppers or 3 silver, totaling in 432.000 gold for 1 440.000 pounds of honey." A female elf with black hair and an armor made off tree bark and leafs announced.

The halfling looked thoughtful for a second, before a grin appeared on his face „We would be able to have a profit of 3.4 to 7.2%"

„That is acceptable. The council has decided to buy 1 400.000 pounds of honey for 432.000 GP from the Wood elf's. The transaction will be finalized in one week. Now that that's over with „ the white haired woman turned to face Valiar „greetings I apologies for the delay, please take a seat"

„Thank you" he approached the table and took one of the three empty chairs.

„My name is councilor Tyghgari Snowhair" bowing her head slightly in greeting, the white haired half-lunar was around Valiars height, dressed in a red sorcerers robes, from glance she appeared to have a petite figure so it was difficult to guess if it was a he or a she.

„Sylvana Greenleaf" spoke the female elf in the bark armor.

„Tadeos Undertree" the halfling looked a bit overweight, dressed in silken, nobles garments. He wore a silver medallion with four different arcane symbols on it.

„Archmage Erelan Moonsong" the silver-haired elf announced.

„General Lagmar Ironbeard" harumphed the bald dwarf .

„Oglen Silverbeard" the old dwarf greeted.

„Adriana Elamara" spoke a pale half-merfolk woman with long blue hair, blue eyes, dressed in indecent clothing with an crystal amulet around her neck.

„Happy69" the deceiver had the appearance of a young brown haired man with clerics robes.

Everyone looked at the dark haired woman in black Spring Steel armor, after a minute of mute staring, she sighted.

„Eris" the female assassin was itching to get away from the boring paperwork.

„Greetings my name is Valiar Silvermane, I was tasked to ask of the council to gain permission for establishing a branch of the Order of the Golden Lion as well as the Eternal Order inside the cities borders."

Sylvana scowled „Paladins" venom evident in her voice.

Valiar was not surprised that he would be despised in the city ruled by a Cyricist, what surprised him was that only the druidess was apparently antagonistic to him.

„That is correct, our Orders desires to strengthen this fair city from any that would wish it harm, and to uphold the Penance of Duty and Dept of Dereliction."

He stood proud in his chainmail, his blue eyes betraying his absolute devotion to his faith. He had short sandy hair and a handsome face. It was obvious to all present that the man was a zealot, typical for young paladins.

„Lad, ye know that the Dept of Duty demands the elimination of Cyrics faithful, and we have a bloody big cathedral on one floating island?"

Valiars expression changed from prideful to sad „Indeed I know, Lord Lagmar. And that also brings me to my second mission."

He inhaled „I wish to challenge Viceroy Aeron Blackheart, servant to the Netherese Empire, follower of the Mad God, user of necromantic magic to a duel to the death."

A stunned silence fell on the council chambers.

„...and they call Aeron mad" murmured Lagmar.

„I know this seems strange, but please don't interfere, justice must be appeased, and judgment will be swift and final".

Eris looked at him with disgust in her eyes, she could only describe him as a moron. What she learned from her human father and elven mother was never to trust people who kissed a Gods ass, especially goodly priests and paladins.

„You dare to speak of justice!" Sylvana outburst caught everybody off guard, they never saw her this angry before.

„I don't understand your hostility towards me lady Sylvana but I assure you my intentions are purely for the good of all"

„Does the name of the tanar'ri Vladjick remind you of something?" she snarled.

„Yes, the tale is known to me"

The knights of the Order of Samular had marched against the fiend. The battle had been long and fierce, and the tanar'ri had fled into the

forest north of Sembia. An elven community lay between the paladins and their foe. The elf's refused to let them pass so they forced their way by steel. The Samular paladins were wrong in their course of action, but it would have been far worse if the demon remained free.

„They did what was required of them, I mourn for the loss of life on both sides but the demon could not be allowed to escape"

„I had relatives there, but that's not even the end of the tragedy. One of them survived, I learned it later from a dear friend that one of my cousins survived the massacre. He was hired by a priest of Cyric to safeguard his daughter, so she could live a normal, happy life without his taint. And she did, until a paladin killed her guardians, my cousin and his wife simply because they followed the 'wrong' God. Cara Caradoon has found it in her heart to forgive him, but I certainly have not. I will curse the name of Algorind and all you fools as long as I live!". She turned around and stormed to the nearest ivory growth simply melting into it and tree-walking out of the palace.

Erelan shook his head „It looks like we wont do a lot of work today" he turned to Valiar „I'm sorry but we can't give you permission without the consent of the entire council. Pleas understand that your presence would be indeed welcomed if you could show tolerance to other paths. Moonreef has a large number of temples dedicated to the Gods both good and evil and we fear you would bring disorder to the balance that we maintain".

„I will not allow this city to remain a Cyricist stronghold, if we must we will gather our brothers to bring it to the light"

His words pushed the councilors over the edge. Even Tyghgari was angry with the attempt to intimidate them.

„Thank you for your visit lord Silvermane, but its time you leave. And for your information Moonreefs main church is not that of Cyric but that of Gond".

„I still demand a duel with the viceroy"

„You would be welcomed to try if we knew where he was. He has a tendency to leave without a word, he does that often. I'm guessing that's why he bothered with creating this council".

„So he is not in the city?" he more stated to himself then asked, somewhat disappointed

„That I don't know, he can shapeshift easily so honestly he could be even you pulling our leg once again."

„And for how long does he usually disappear?"

„Days, moths, years. In all honesty we govern this city more than he does."

„The son of a orc once impersonated me wife". Lagran grumbled

„Really? How did you identify him?"

„For starters, she was half way to Mithrall Hall to buy crafting materials. Second he served me a salad with a smiley face made from tomato's. You don't have to be a archmage to connect the dots".

„I still remember when he painted your armor pink with pictures of flowers. It was so pretty" Adrianas giggles were contagious, and soon everybody imagined a bald dwarf in a pink flowery armor.

„And I remember that being you las, and don't think for a second I forgave you, one of those days payback will be given".

„So how does Aeron normally look like?"

„Handsome, around two meters tall, short white hair, black spiky armor with Cyrics symbol on the front. Caries a large one-sided axe on the back. But since he loves to change his appearance, you would find him easier by personality" Eris commented, she was hoping the paladin would find him, she had no doubt that Aeron would make a nice ghoul from the fools corpse.

XXXX

Walking down to the docks Valiar was thinking about the information he received.

The goodly people of Moonreef were all deceived by a Cyricist and would not help his cause. Assaulting the city was not advisable, Not only was it part of The Netherese Empire, it had an enormous number of Guardian Cristal defenses and able people to protect it.

Valiar rubbed his head _Bringing Aeron to justice will be very difficult, perhaps the Gold dragons can be persuaded to help._

„You! Stop Right there!"

He stopped, his eyes fell on a beautiful young elven girl dressed in black leather armor and wielding a bladed chain. Her long blond hair was moving with the wind as she stared at him with her green eyes.

„Can I help you my lady?"

„Your that Valiar person am I correct'?"

„Indeed you ar..." he was cut short when he had to dodge a punch only to receive a jump kick in the face instead, knocking him on the ground.

Nursing his split lip he looked at her „May I know why you attack me unprovoked?"

„You threaten to kill my foster father, for that I will kick your rear to Gehenna and back"

„I believe there is a misunderstanding, I'm a paladin of Torm and would never thre.."

„threaten Aeron Blackheart?"

Valiars eyes grew wide „Aeron...he's your father?"

„Foster father" she corrected.

Sadness filed his eyes „Another soul lost to his schemes, liste..."

„Oh shut up, and defend yourself!" she charged him

He had barely enough time to roll to the side as her chain struck the ground. He pulled his sword and parried a blow to his head. Getting to his feet he saw that the fight attracted some observers that wisely kept back. They were circling each other looking for openings. The she-elf made the first move attempting to trip him with the chain, but he parried it again, causing her weapon to wrap itself around the swords blade. She pulled to disarm him, but was not strong enough. He rushed her delivering a punch to her abdomen with his gauntlet. Stumbling and grasping for air she snarled at him holding her injured stomach.

„Do you yield?"

„Go to hell"

He shook his head, deciding that it would be the best if he disarmed the poor girl. He pulled his sword, tearing away the chain from her hands. He looked at the weapon and found it vile, before throwing it behind him.

He was about to repeat his demand for her to yield when a bag hit him in the face.

„Swallow Choking powder you bastard"

As he was having a coughing fit she dashed and circle kicked him in the groin.

Valiars legs gave way and he collapsed on his knees. The pain made him want to vomit, his head was spinning and the last thing he saw was the flat side of his greatsword coming down on his face.

Frost dropped the paladins sword next to his unconscious form and holding her stomach went to pick up her chain. She could have used magic, but paladins are notoriously adapt in evading it, luckily they are almost useless against non evil opponents.

„Serves you right, now where is that scatterbrain of a father?"

* * *

_**Underdark, City of Menzoberranzan**_

Hiding in the darkness of the Shadowfell he stealthily approached his prey. Wizards were always to arrogant for their own good, drow wizards even more so. The soon to be dead elf was oblivious to his presence concentrating on his research.

Aeron grimaced at the security of the place, it was laughable, the only reason he accepted the mission was because he was bored. No enemy was so terrifying like boredom, no ally so great as change. He could never understand people who were against change, the morons who liked traditions and rules. And that included drow, for all their ′chaotic′ nature they were as predictable as orcs.

He took note of his surroundings, the wizards home was chiseled out of a cavern wall and had a wonderful view on Menzoberranzan, you could see the light of Narbondel indicating the time. By human standards it would be around midnight, but in the deep caverns of the Underdark that meant little.

The drow were creatures of darkness, and it was not surprising that Menzoberranzans streets were tangling with activity. Towering beside the drow were shapes of orcs and other slaves that possessed the ability to see in the dark. But non of the hulking brutes would dare to rebel against their diminutive masters, the fear of torture by one of Lolths priestesses was engraved to deeply in their minds.

Aeron had no love for either slave or slaver, forcing others to do your work only weakens oneself by losing experience, and bending over for anybody was pitiful.

The city itself was a marvel of architectural beauty, unlike his birthplace, the city of Thultanthar. Like all flying cities of the Netherese Empire the City of Shade had to use space rationally and was mostly utilitarian. On the other hand the city of the dark elf's was simply breath taking to behold. The drow houses were illuminated by fairy fire, the bazaar full of merchants selling their exotic wares. Drow, ilithid, beholder, abolit, human, duergard, demon and many other creatures moved around the streets like it was the most natural thing in the world. Such tolerance was remarkable for species who mostly considered others nothing more then filth. It was ironic that it was the goodly races who radiated xenophobia the most.

It was all about fear, those of evil minds don't judge individuals by reputation, they only view them as tool they can use for their own gain. Being evil they don't fear others or condemn them for it, unlike the 'goodly' races, no individual would be forbidden to enter Menzoberranzan irrelevant of what race or alignment they are. Unlike Waterdeep where a half-orc would be hard pressed to get entry into the city. Its astonishing that people who fear all that is different would be able to even form a unified society.

On the other hand somehow its only logical that individuals form groups, they use one another since no single person can accomplish everything. That is one of the reasons that powerful spellcasters are often solitary creatures, the more power you have the less you need others.

But however impressive the scenery was he ignored it, he was here with a purpose far more urgent. A month ago a certain drow wizard acquired a lost Netheres artifact and Aeron was offered the task to retrieve the item. Normally it would be beneath his level but anything is better then dying out of boredom.

The task was simple for a Assassin-Wizard of his skill, so he accepted it for a custom low level spell scroll that Brennus Thantul possessed.

Aeron welcomed the opportunity to get some workout, it would be a shame if his more direct skill became rusty. Advancing in two classes was not easy but it paid off, the skills he acquired as a assassin were perfect for a single adventurer like himself and his mastery of the ninth circle of spells was even more lethal by using shadow magic. He was as powerful as the princes of Shade, but he was not fool enough to antagonize them, Telamont Thanthul was to powerful a foe to have as a enemy. Anybody who can crush a Dracolich with his mind was not to be trifled with.

Finding the artifact in question was almost impossible if done the normal way, so he searched and hired a mage proficient in divination to pinpoint its location. The wizard revealed the item to be in the possession of house Ulutar that resided at the West Wall district of Menzoberranzan.

If his target was one of the greater houses he would have had serious problems with accomplishing his task, but the house Ulutar was a non noble house and had few protections as is the norm of the drow inhabiting that part.

It was a simple matter of infiltration from that point forward.

It amused the Shadovar to no end how the dark elf's thought they were safe from the Empire simply because they lived in the dark underground, that Lolth actually has the ability to protect them from Shar the ruler of all caverns and darkness - and her Shades.

Gelroose Ulutar was focused performing some alchemical tests so he was not really paying that much attention to his surroundings. But with drow you can never be to careful so he crept through the darkness shrouded in magic silence. The Netherese artifact was placed on the desk on the wizards right side, it would be easy to simply wait and take it when the wizard left the room, but by Cyric that would be no fun. He slowly emerged from the wizards shadow rising as if it was simply a hole in the ground. In his left hand was a longsword he crafted from shadowstuff, a dark glass blade that could slice steel like it was butter, in his right hand was a alchemical silver dagger that had a vampiric enchantment and was now covered in paralytic poison.

It was hard to fight a spellcaster one on one, but not even a wizard could be alert all the time and assassins were best to exploit such weaknesses. The dagger plunged deep in the back of the fool drow while the longsword easily went through the neck, separating the head cleanly from the body. He caught the falling corpse and pulled it into the Shadowfell where it would probably be consumed by its denizens.

Aeron moved to the table and quickly retrieved the artifact, it was a ring of wishes, that had its two original charges unused, at least that was what Brennus told him. Certainly a powerful artifact but with the items Shadovar crafted it was nothing more then a trinket.

Returning his focus back to the table he looted a plain adamantium dagger, two healing potions, the wizards spell-book and a potion of restoration. Lazily he also took the small bag of gold from the table, probably no more then a few hundred gold and silver pieces altogether, compared to the fortune he pillaged on his adventures that now rested in his bag of holding it was nothing.

With his objective achieved he turned around and dashed for the exit...or that was the plane, but instead he rushed headlong into a portal that was not there a moment ago.

* * *

_**Halkegenia, Tristain, outside the magic academy**_

She was violently thrown off her feet, and started coughing from the dust cloud her explosion created.

Seconds later, the complaints about her failure began.

"You really are a zero!" A voice called out.

Louise was on the brink of tears, she resigned herself that she would be expelled. _No matter how hard I work, I always fail in the end, its not fair._ She took a deep breath, and made a impressive pokerface refusing to cry and break the rule of steel.

„I just made a little mistake" her reply was confident as she cleaned some dust from her face.

„Mistake my foot! Your success rate is ZERO! Do us all a favor and go home already" Malicorn shouted, while other students nodded in agreement.

XXXX

Aeron was still dazed from his not to soft landing, but the first thing that caught his attention was green grass, that indicates he was not in the Underdark anymore, the second thing was it was daytime, but by his knowledge it should be around midnight, so he is either a considerable distance away from the Sword Coast or there were some time altering properties in the damned portal.

Before the dust cleared he used his keen senses to identify his location more clearly. He saw children all dressed in some strange uniforms, one of them an older individual had the appearance of a wizard, he was preoccupied talking to a short..._pinkette?_ if the dust wasn't deceiving him.

The other children were laughing at something, chattering in a language he could not identify. Next to the students were a lot of animals and other critters, even a blue dragon. _This is probably a wizard school, and the portal was certainly not meant for me, were they trying to contact Gelroose? None of this makes any sense. I need some answers and fast. But first..._

He silently activated the spell stored in one of his magic rings ¸"Tongues", instantly the meanings behind their words became understandable.

Not waiting to be spotted he shapeshifted into a snake to blend in better with the grass and waited until the dust cleared.

XXXX

Louise was preparing herself for another attempt when the dust disappeared, Colbert wanted to give all his students a chance, but if the fifth time failed...

"My servant that existed somewhere in this vast universe, my divine, beautiful, wise, powerful servant, heed my call, I wish from very bottom of my heart and add to my guidance and appear!" Louise expected an explosion, but she wasn't expecting this.

„Huh? What happened?" asked Guiche while hiding behind Monmon.

„Nothing?" Louise was shocked, not even an explosion.

The silence from the students was an insult worse than mockery, she was to pitiful even to verbally assault. Colbert shook his head.

„I'm sorry Miss Vallière, when you are promoted to a second year student, you must summon a familiar, it enables you to advance to the appropriate courses for that element. Without a familiar..." it was clear to all assembled students that without a familiar she can't advance, and that means expulsion from the magic academy.

Louise fell on her knees and started to sob, not caring anymore if the others saw her.

„Familiar" Tabitha whispered and raised her finger to the location where the explosion was.

Some of the students tracked her finger where it was pointing.

In the grass a black snake was calmly watching the whole drama.

„A familiar?" Louise was desperate that Tabitha was correct.

She jumped to her feet and rushed towards it.

Not bothering to think that it could be a random poisonous snake, she took it in her arms and cried happily jumping up and down. _I did it, I summoned a familiar! It's not divine, beautiful, wise or powerful but its better than nothing_.

„I did it! I did it!"

„I will call you Josephine!" Louise proclaimed happily. Aeron sweatdroped at the name HE was given, its true that its difficult to identify the gender of reptiles but _Josephine_?!

He was not the only one unhappy with the name, Tabitha particularly hated it.

„Very good Miss Vallière, now finish the contract" Colbert demanded.

Louise pointed her wand at him "My name is Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière. Pentagon of the five elemental powers; bless this humble being, and make him my familiar."

Aeron was surprised when she kissed him, the surprise soon faded when he felt a burning sensation that he ignored until it passed.

He looked at the spot where the pain started only to see unknown runes burned into his side, to say that he was not happy would be an understatement.

_The little brat branded me! _Anger and confusion dominating his feeling, Shadovar possessed a natural magic resistance that normally would make magic attacks on him fail easily, but somehow this girl put a spell on him.

„You are now my familiar and so from now one I am your master!" Louise proclaimed cheerfully.

_...Familiar? Me?..._So _it seems she wasn't trying to contact the drow wizard after all. _If he could frown he would be doing it right now_ The idea that I would let her command me is absurd to say the least... But then again I could try being one for a time, it would be a new experience, and I don't really have anything fun to do. Might as well see what her goals are...before I turn her into a toad._

"You have failed 'Summon Servant' many times, but you have managed to succeed with 'Contract Servant' in one try," the balding mage said happily.

"If it was a powerful magical beast, she wouldn't have been able to make a contract."

Some of the students laughed.

Louise scowled at them. "Don't make fun of me! Even I do things right once in a while!"

"Truly 'once in a while', Louise the Zero,"

While the students argued amongst themselves, professor Colbert took the opportunity to examine the runes.

Aeron wasn't paying too much attention to them, then suddenly a realization stopped his pondering, she summon him from Menzoberranzan...teleporting into the Underdark was risky and never precise, the same worked for teleporting out of it, the magic became distorted because of all the faerzress in the rocks of the dark underground realm._ This girl has power...and a lot of it. This could prove entertaining, and Lord Shadow isn't expecting me to return for a while._

Colbert's curiosity fulfilled he turned to his students "Well, let's go back to class, everyone."

Everyone slowly levitated away towards the stone walls of the castle in the distance.

With the exception of Louise, Aeron was intrigued why she alone was left to walk back, as she carried him towards the castle and new adventures.

XXXX

Aeron was not really impressed with the magic academy, the defenses were a joke, any single mage had a more impressive wizard tower, not to mention the place radiated very little magical aura_._

His master carried him into a small but elegantly equipped room. An oversized bed, a big wardrobe and a desk with a single lit candle that barely illuminated the room were present.

„You will sleep here" she pointed at a haystack on the floor „I was hoping for a manticore, but you will have to do" leaving him on the table she went to change into her night clothes.

_...she wanted a manticore and prepared a haystack in her room?...maybe she′s one of Bidderdoos relatives, Cyric only knows how an entire family can be as insane as the Harpells are._

He had nothing against sleeping on hay, he slept in worse conditions while adventuring, before he crafted his ring that made the whole sleeping thing irrelevant.

His attention was drawn back to her when he heard a soft giggle „I summoned a familiar! I summoned a familiar!...that means I can cast magic!" she was obviously very happy about summoning a _snake, _so happy in fact she went to cast another spell, it was almost comical to watch a little girl in the _nude_ waiving a wand and receiving an explosion right in her face, truly entertainment at its best.

He was excited to see what the funny little girl planed to do next, that is until he spotted a tear sliding down her cheek.

Louise fell on her knees and cried.

Aeron was in an increasingly uncomfortable position, he was never good with emotions, he savored the feelings of hate and fear but sorrow was not to his taste. If sorrow had a flavor it would be bitter.

Obviously she had some problems with spellcasting if her cries of „I'M A FAILURE! I'M A ZERO!" were any indicator, so the obvious question was what would he do about it. He could always chose not to interfere, or...

„Do you need sssome asssissstance massster?"

„Whose there?!" Louise looked around her room but was unable to identify the speaker.

„That would be me massster" Aeron raised his head a little higher so he could gain her attention.

„Josephine..was that you?" her eyes were wide as she looked directly at her familiar.

„Yesss massster...and I'm not female"

„You can speak? How? Since when?" she gaped in shock.

„Ssssince my former massster taught me to ssspeek"

„You were someones familiar before?"

„Oh yesss massster, I ssserved a mossst powerful wizard" _as an apprentice._

„...so I stole a familiar from a noble, great it seems my failure is limitless." Her eyes downcast, she looked like she will start crying again any minute now. _Better to stop it or I will really turn her to ash out off irritation._

„No massster, he died a long time ago" _One of my most fondest kills I might add, the whole wise mentor thing was tiresome._

That gave her some confidence.

_Strange people usually give condolences. There is hope for her yet. _He could feel that Louise was not a bad child, prideful and stubborn yes, but not bad. With good guidance she would develop into a truly heroic individual_. Well, we can't have that..._

„So...do you have a name? You mentioned you were not female so I can't call you Josephine".

„My name is Aeron. If it'sss not too much to asssk massster, what ssspell were you trying to cassst?"

Louise was reluctant to tell her familiar of her ′problems′ with magic, but he would find out sooner or later.

„I-I attempted to extinguish the candle with magic"

„..do you know why the magic was unsssuccesssful?" _don't really want to mention the word failed for now._

She shook her head, a sad expression on her face „All my spells end in explosions"

He thought about that for a minute „Well, the only explanation I can find isss that you are usssing the wrong magic, if it were a matter of sssimple missscassst it would have far more unpredictable resssultsss, if you were putting too much power in it, it would resssult in a overpowered effect".

She look at him confused „What wrong magic?"

„Well if a mage would try casssting a divine ssspell it would end up doing nothing...or explode like yoursss do."

„Divine spells? What do you even know about magic anyway, your just a familiar!" hating to appear ignorant she acted as she usually does, she verbally assaulted the target.

„I know a LOT about magic, I have asssisssted my former massster and learned the arcane artsss over the yearsss, if you wisssh I could teach you."

She was stunned, the possibility that an animal could learn magic was preposterous, magic was Brimirs gift to them „HOW DARE YOU!"

Aeron tilted his head in confusion „Have I sssaid sssomething wrong?"

„Magic is a holy gift from the Founder himself, only those of noble blood can use it!" anger was evident in her voice, not to mention the wand she pointed at him.

Aeron sighted and shook his head „Baleful Polymorph"

(PUFFF!)

Louise blinked, her familiar spoke something and then the world went white.

„_Ah, your awake, perfect_" she didn't hear the voice as much as she felt it in her mind, she looked at her surroundings...and spotted Aeron, but he was different, the snake she carried around the academy was now bigger then she remembered, in fact it was slightly bigger then she was.

„W-What happened?" is what she wanted to say but instead only made a „Ribbit-Ribbit?" sound. Looking over the room it seamed larger, that is until she spotted her reflection in the big mirror.

Where she was suppose to be, was now a toad standing beside Aeron.

She would have screamed but only more strange noises emerged.

_W-What h-happened to me? Is this a dream? Y-Yes, a nightmare, it has to be a nightmare, I will wake up and all will be fine. _Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard Aeron laughed in snake like manner.

„_Sss-sss-sss-sss, thisss isss no dream little one, thisss isss asss real asss it getsss. Asss to what happened I turned you into a toad, and a toad you ssshall remain"._

„Ribbit?!" _Why?!_

„_Don't try do talk, you can't ssspeak in your form, itsss enough if you think what you want to asssk, and I will read it from your mind. Asss to why, I wasss hoping to teach you real magic, not the parlor tricksss you here perform, sssadly it ssseamsss I misssjudge you and ssso I'm now finishing lossse endesss"._

„_I will learn! I will learn! Please just turn me back!" _

Aeron shook his head_ „I don't think you can, magic demandsss an open mind an a lot of concentration, you on the other hand are impulsssive and narrow minded. I'm an excellent teacher, but even I have my doubtsss that my knowledge would pierce all the falssse information that you were indoctrinated with. No, you will remain like this until you die"._

„_I command you to turn me back familiar!"_

„_You command me? The lassst entity who wanted to command me wasss a Merilith, a demonic general for you. You ssshould have ssseen her ssshock when I captured her, even now asss we ssspeak ssshe isss imprisssoned in my pocket plain, sssubjected to torture that would make Asssmodeusss proud. Itsss not easssy to break a demonsss ssspiritl, but I will find a way, I have time. Ssso tell me massster, why ssshould I lisssten to you?"_

„_Because...your my familiar?"_

„_Good by little one." _he changed shape into his human form, and started to meld into the shadow of the wardrobe.

She was panicking, she had to convince him to turn her back, but how? She could not command him to do it, what else is there?

„_Wait! You are presuming that I would not learn because of my prejudices, is that not the same for you? You told me basically that I should not judge blindly, so why not give me a chance to prove that I can learn?" _its was a long shot but she hoped it works.

Nothing, no reply came for her desperate plea.

She collapsed to the floor, too tired to do anything. Her life is finished, a Zero to the end. Her despair was broken when she heard laughter coming from the darkness that surrounded her.

„_Hahahaha, my how amusing. Indeed you are learning. Treats and begging for mercy never pay off, the best option is to bring your foe to see things your way...but we will have to work on your persuasion skills"._

Aeron emerged from the shadows_, „_Dispel_"_

She found herself on the floor, looking at her hands,_ I'm back. _She smiled and let her tears flow freely.

After she got a hold off herself, she spotted Aeron, not as a snake but as a human.

He was around 2 meters tall, dressed in black leather armor, his head was hidden behind a hood and his face covered by a mask. He carried on his belt a black..._glass?_ longsword and an evil looking dagger. On his hands were long black glows, with metal depicting the bones of the human hand and a lot of rings on his fingers. On his chest was a picture of a silver skull in a purple sun.

_He looks like a thief_, _a familiar represents its master, so then does that mean I have something in common with a common thug?_ Louise head hurt _No wait, he is a mage, a disgraced noble? Yes he must be._

He frowned „Again jumping to conclusions are we? If you wish to know something it is indeed good to think about the problem but you should be able to come up with more then only one explanation, not embrace the first that pops into your mind."

„W-Why can you cast magic? A-Are you a noble?" she stuttered as she watched him with fear.

Chuckling Aeron seated himself in her chair „Now we are getting somewhere, please take a seat" he indicated at her bed „ this will require some explaining and we don't have all night" he then watched her crawl into the bed, taking her pillow and positioning it in front of her as an improvised shield.

Aeron cleared his throat „ As I have mentioned my name is Aeron and I would appreciate it if you used it instead of familiar, and to answer your questions no I'm not a noble and yes I am a mage"

„But how? Nobility comes from magic" she inquired, a text book indoctrination if he ever saw one.

Aeron grimaced, „Nobility" he spoke the word with obvious disgust „Louise, I have no idea who made your sociopolitical structure, but the only thing that comes from magic is power. And when you have enough power you can mold society as you see fit".

She nodded, not liking it but it somehow made sense.

„So this land is a magocracy. Do you have one ruler or a council?"

„We have a queen...Whats a magocracy?" she asked confusion on her face.

"Social standing determined by magical ability" he explained simply, „I come from a magocracy that is a monarchy but based on meritocracy so we don't have what you would term nobility, the closest thing to nobility would be the Twelve princes".

She frowned „So whats a meritocracy?"

Aeron would have facepalmed „...its a system of government where ones social standing depends on the individuals achievements".

"What did you mean that you don't have nobility?" Louise could not imagine a civilized land without nobles, who would govern the commoner, they need to be protected, without earth and water mages they were unable to build houses or grow crops.

„Its rather simple, all Shadovar compete for positions, the more powerful one is the higher his standing, and that makes it impossible to form rigid traditions or bloodlines, since no position is inheritable, and the balance of power is ever changing. You could say our politics' is similar to a wolf pack"

„That is barbaric!" she yelled

„To you maybe, but my world does not tolerate weakness, only by eliminating the weak can we gain strength".

„From what insane country do you come from anyway?"

„I was born in the Empire of Netheril, in the capital city Thultanthar, or Shade Enclave by other natives of Fearun".

She pondered that for a minute " So you came from Rub' al Khali in the east?".

„Rub' al Khali? I'm sorry master I am not familiar with that name. The Eastern most nation that I know is Osse and the western most is Returned Abeir".

She frowned „I never heard of these places, and Albion is the western most part of the world".

Aeron raised an eyebrow „I'm impressed, you managed to transport me not only from the Underdark but also to another world".

The more she spoke with her familiar, the greater her confusion became.

„What other world? There are no other worlds" she spoke with absolute certainty.

_...great...just great..._ he massaged his forehead from the increasing headache he suffered by his newest experiment.

„Never mind, forget I mentioned anything, let's go back to teaching you magic is that acceptable?"

She nodded

„Great, first let go off the wand, you wont need it for my magic".

She blinked not comprehending, for casting spell you need a want, period.

When he saw her freeze in place he contemplated reading her mind again, it would be so much easier than deciphering her body language but it takes away so much of the drama, the tension the misunderstandings...it simply makes things to easy „Master?"

She snapped back out of her thoughts, „Yes?"

„Let go off your wand"

„People cant cast spells without a wand you know" _If he does not know this much, how good a teacher can he be?_

"You might have noticed I use no wand or staff, it's simply a focusing point, if you learned to use magic correctly you would not need it" he said.

She blinked, then her eyes widened. "You don't? You don't!".

"Magic here runs in bloodlines right? It's inherited?"

She nodded. "Magic comes from nobility, just as nobility comes from magic." Aeron rolled his eyes at the fine example of circular logic.

„That would make you a sorceress, a wielder of arcane magic bound only by your own willpower, simply put magic is in your blood."

She nodded.

A book appeared floating in front of him, from it a single piece of paper floated up and to Louise.

Her eyes were wide open at the display of power made by her familiar, as she snapped out off it she took the paper floating in front of her „Whats this?" she looked at the strange symbol's on the parchment.

„Its a spell of ′Silent Image′, a simple spell. You will memorize the scroll and than cast it, as simple as that". Contrary to popular belief sorcerers can easily learn spells from scrolls like wizards do, hell even rogues can use scrolls even if they don't have the faintest idea of the arcane arts.

„...I...can't read these runes.." she was not happy about admitting there was something she was unable to do, but if she wanted to learn magic than there was no other way. It's not like these runes were drastically different from those she knew, true some runes were absolutely foreign to her, but mostly it was the unfamiliar way the runes were inscribed in relation to one another that made no sense.

Aeron smirked behind his mask.

Even simple spells could be deadly, for magic runes attacked the untrained eye with a stab of searing light. Attempting to read an unlearned spell could cause terrible pain, blindness, even insanity. This child obviously was very familiar with magic, even if she does not know a lot about it.

„I will teach you how to read them, but before that would master be so kind as tell me more about what you know about magic, it would save some time if I don't repeat what you already know"

She thought about it for a second before she nodded

Louise sat up straight demurely, lifted a the finger and started explaining, proud as a peacock.  
"Listen, magic is divided into the five elements, Earth, Water, Wind, Fire, and the lost element of Void. The number of elements that a mage uses can be increased, and his class changes accordingly. A mage who can use only one element is a dot, ability to have two – makes one a line, being able to use three – triangle and four a square mage. Spells are also applied to the class. The spells from three elements are called 'Triangle spells'. Each time the spell class rises, the consumption of willpower doubles."

After she explained her magic system she puffed out her chest and put a small smile, after all the written exams were her strong side.

Aeron looked blankly at her_...Thats it? The whole magic system? Impossible, bards know more about magic - and they are idiots,..._

"So, how long have you studied magic?"

"How long?" she asked, surprised by the question."Since I could lift a wand. I am a noble after all." She stated with a mixture of confusion and pride.

He sighted „Very well, I will show you the spell and you pay attention" he spoke so she could understand him easily and memorize it „Silent Image"

In front of them an illusion of professor Colbert appeared, his lips moved but no sound was fort coming. Aeron willed the image to disappear.

„Have you memorized the incantation?"

She nodded

„Excellent. Now as you are a sorceress and already know how to use your willpower all you now need to do is to imbue your fingers and tongue with magic like you would do with your wand, you will feel a slight tingling in them, if you put too much magic it will start to hurt so be careful".

She nodded again and closed her eyes. After a few minutes testing in her mind she took a deep breath.

She opened her eyes and focused her mind on the spell, moving her delicate fingers she spoke „Silent Image!"

XXXX

Tears were running down her face as she watched the illusion

„I did it" some sobbing from her, and eye rolling from Aeron „I cast a spell".

_So this is...whats the term again? Tears of Joy?_ Aeron shifted his gaze from Louise to the image that was standing and smiling at them, there was something that unnerved him greatly about this woman or rather her smile_._

„Relative?" he inquired.

Louise nodded „My sister Cattleya" fondness evident in her voice.

_Well whatever_ „Excellent work Louise, now dispel it by willing the magic you used to create it to disperse"

She did as instructed and the image was gone.

„Now that we know that you indeed poses the needed willpower and focus I will explain my magic system to you"

She crawled back on her bed to listen attentively.

„Unlike your system of magic that divides spells on elemental properties, my spells are divided by schools, and any school can be learned by anyone, there are nine circles of spells that you can master, a mage who has mastered spells of the ninth circle is for me as a square mage is for you, any question's?" Seeing Louise shaking her had he continued.

„There are eight schools of magic; abjuration is mostly about protective wards and barriers, conjuration focuses on healing, summoning creatures or objects and teleportation".

„Teleportation?" she asked.

„Transfer of matter to another location without traversing the space between them"

„...?"

„You can move people or objects anywhere you wish on this world in seconds, its one of the most useful spells you can have"

„But back to magic, Divination is the school that lets the caster predict the future and learn long forgotten secrets. And it's the school I have neglected so I have no practical knowledge about it. Enchantment spells affect the minds of others, influencing them or outright controlling them. Evocation is the school that manipulates energy like fire, lightning and cold to destroy your enemies. Illusion spells deceive the senses or minds of others. Transmutation...well its exactly what it says on the tin. And the last school, and the school of my specialization, is necromancy. Necromancy spells manipulate the power of death, unlife and the life force".

Louise gulped „A- And you can teach me all this?"

„Without a sweat, since you are a sorceress with a lot of willpower, I will simply be teaching you the spells you lack to use my magic. The hard part will be understanding magic so you can research and develop new spells in time, for that you will need my tutoring, a research facility and a lot of time.". Aeron had a grin from ear to ear hidden by his mask.

„Y-you mean make my own spells?" she look wide eyed at him

He looked at her as if she were a pink dog with wings „Of course you will make your own spells, this is a magic academy is it not? What do you people learn here if not furthering your insight into magic?"

She would have spoken with pride about the academy but somehow she doubted Aeron would be impressed "Tristain's Academy of Magic doesn't just teach magic, you know. It represents the crème of Tristain's noble youth to the world at large."

Aeron had a smile on his face, a strained smile „Louise, my dear sweet Louise. Are you telling me that mages here only show spells and demand that students emulate them?"

He was smiling even if she could not see it behind the mask, his voice was pleasant and his thoughts were about opening a permanent gate to Pandemonium inside her room. _Who knows maybe the girl would be a good sacrifice_.

„W-well t-there's professor Colbert, he is always tinkering with chemicals and some weird contraptions"

He snorted „One profesor? What are the rest doing?"

She fidgeted „Well, when they are not teaching they are busy with private matters like paperwork, preparations for class, governing their lands if they have them or simply enjoy the free time relaxing".

_Don't kill, don't kill, don't kill, don't kill...yet, don't kill yet, don't kill yet, don't kill yet. Patience is a virtue, there's no need to rush things, just relax and make a nice little convoluted plan and all will be perfect. _He repeated until the twitch on his forehead disappeared.

He exhaled „Very well. Look as a sorceress I can teach you to copy some of my spells, you wont be able to memorize them all since you can remember only so many spells before you need to discard others. What curricular activities do you have tomorrow?"

„Tomorrow all classes are canceled so the masters can get to know their familiars better"

He pulled down his mask and hood, going with his fingers through his hair, he made a mental list of spells she should master, unlike a wizard sorcerers are extremely limited with the number of spells available not to mention he will need to teach her about the inner workings of magic so she can research spells and not only copy them. He ignored the blushing brat since its normal that his appearance attracted females like magnets iron dust, not that he cared.

Louise gawked at his perfect facial structure, but what really got her attention was his white hair and unusual golden slitted eyes. She didn't see them because of the hood but they were obviously not human.

„A-Aeron"

He focused his snake like eyes on her making her flinch „Yes?"

„W-What happened to your eyes?"

„My eyes? Ohh you mean my dragon eyes. That is simple, I once encountered a gold dragon, and since she possessed a pair of such beautiful orbs I decided to trade with her for them." _Actually I just shapeshifted them_.

Louise was confused „How can you trade with a dragon they don't even know how to speak?"

„...Louise have you seen a dragon?"

„I have seen many dragons!" she puffed feeling insulted

„Would you please describe one to me?"

„Well they...are big lizard with wings that can breathe fire"

„And how intelligent are they?"

„As any dog, griffin or hawk"

„Aaaaaaa, you see the dragons I'm talking about are around 100 meters long, posses above human intelligence and are masters in magecraft"

„T-Thats impossible! Dragons are d.."

„Silence" he growled

On command she covered her mouth with her hands

„I HATE the word impossible, its only in the dictionary of fools. And as far as your drakes are concerned don't compare them to my dragons. Its like comparing you with a pigeon, the world is full of wonders and you will miss them if you discard them as impossible, do you understand?".

She nodded „S-So what did you give the dragon for its eyes? It's hard to imagine anything willingly trading their sigh away."

He grinned „Who said anything about willing?" _well I did take dragon eyes, but that was for my experiments._

„B-but you sad you traded?"

„Indeed I have, I gave her oblivion in exchange for the eyes"

„Y-You killed her?!" her face showed shock, if his dragons were really so intelligent this was murder...worse he killed her for her eyes that were now watching her.

„She fought bravely...for all 10 seconds" _All hail the Finger!...that sounded weird...but nobody can disagree that the ′Finger of Death′ is one of the best spells to kill any single target._

„D-Don't you feel bad about it?" she was a little creeped out by his behavior

He made a thinking pose „Hmmmmm...no, not really. But enough talk, we will continue tomorrow and you need to sleep now. In the mean time, I will explore the facility".

Remembering an important bit of info he rummaged in his pockets until he found the item he was searching for „Oh, and before I forget put this ring on. It's a ring of sustenance, if you wear it for a week, you wont need to, eat, drink or sleep for more then two hours. And we will need every minute to make you the strongest sorceress that walks this world"

„T-The strongest?!" she gasped as she caught the ring and slid it on her finger.

Aeron rolled his eyes again _Gods, I could have given her a cursed item and she would have been none the wiser. _„Indeed Louise, but now you must sleep"

She nodded, her eyes were already distant, her mind in dreamland, imagining herself as an all powerful mage that was loved and respected, she was so caught up in her daydream that she forgot all about Aeron and went to lay down. „Here" she tossed here used underwear at him „have this cleaned for me until morning"

His fist clenched having an urge to throttle the pink menace..._this_ _brat was more infuriating then a paladin when he rants about justice and other gibberish they believe in._ „It will be done master, I will take my leave now to get familiar with the academy grounds".

She nodded and watched him melt again into shadows causing shivers to go down her spine.

XXXX

Aeron moved through the darkness looking at his surroundings. From what he saw of the academy it was a large complex made in the shape of a pentagram, with towers representing the five elements that dominate the magical system of this land. Beside the storage, stables, students dormitory and staff quarters the center tower possessed a kitchen, large bathing facility, classrooms a oversize dining area, headmasters office and a library.

The Library to his disappointment dabbled most in history, basic elemental magic and local lore. On the other hand he encountered the familiar balding mage that was going through the books searching for something. Being careful to not be spotted, he probed the thoughts of the individual.

The mage called Colbert was an interesting man, former soldier, wants to repent, fascinated with machinery and has found out something about the runes that were burned on his hand. It seems that this Brimir fellow had a fetish for human familiars (read slaves), and kept no less than four to be his meat shields, until one got fed up and made a shis-ka-bob out of him.

The probing took almost an hour but he was certain he had the basic sociopolitical knowledge he needed. He was slowly walking around the Academy, watching the two moons in the sky, when he spotted a blond kid courting a first year. The kid had no skill in persuasion what so ever.

"I'm really good preparing Souffle!" the girl stated.

"I would love to try it!"

_Lovers, maybe? _He thought.

"Oh...Lord Guiche..you mean it?!"

"Of course, Katie! I cannot tell a lie to your eyes!" Aeron grinned. _My this ′Guiche′was a perfect victim to fall to a Cyricist. I hope he will not be to inconvenienct when the lies bite him in the rear._ He thought wickedly.

"There exist no lies in my feelings for you!"

_If she believes this the intelligence of the people here would be orc standard._ He shuddered after remembering his short encounter with an old bald ranger.

He was infiltrating one of Amunautors temples posing as a paladin, when this madman came and exposed him by pointing a 'hamster' in his face, announcing that the fuzzball would make acrobatics if he were a paladin. _I have no idea why those idiots believed him, like a rodent could detect evil or something._ Not that he was evil, he always thought himself somewhere in the gray zone of morality.

He stealthily moved pass them, then up the wall into the room where he left Louise sleeping. After cleaning her clothes with a simple „Prestidigitation". He took his spellbook and refreshed his spells for a new day.

* * *

_**Halkeginia, Tristain academy of magic – Louise's room**_

_I hate the sun! _Was the first thing Aeron thought when the morning came, and his foul mood deepened when he saw Louise still sleeping and making weird sounds that a normal person would describe as cute. Unfortunately for Louise Aeron was not really normal, even amongst the insane Cyricist he was something of an eccentric.

So after a few minutes of examining his options, he decided on his next course of actions, and chanted a simple spell summoning a squirrel.

„Whats up boss, you haven't called me in a while." looking around the room, it spotted the figure of Louise still sleeping in her bed. „We don't see each other in two months and you become a pedophile? You're a disappointment master" the squirrel chided

Aeron grinned „Well I was thinking of switching to bestiality, what say you?"

The squirrel shuddered „Boss, don't even joke about that. How do you even come up with such disgusting comments?"

„Divine inspiration?" he looked amused before he shrugged "but back to why I summoned you, I need you for a very important mission"

The squirrels shoulders sagged „Ooooo not again, every time you say important and mission in one sentence it is some bullshit errand that I have to do".

„Those are important missions, don't underestimate them " he held his arms  
crossed a serious expression on his face.

„The last _important mission_ you gave me was playing dice with a orc!"

He scowled „And If I remember correctly you lost"

„Boss, the dice were bigger then my paws and the blasted cup was bigger and heavier than my whole body! How in Silvanus name have you imagined me throwing the damned things?"

He grinned „Have no idea but it was entertaining seeing you try"

„...One of those days I will break your nuts".

„Heard that one before, but back to your mission. You see that girl over there?"

The squirrel looked at the bed „Yes"

„Bite her finger " _this will definitely wake her up_

The squirrel sighted „I knew it, I _bloody_ damn knew it", but still he jumped on the bed and found her hand displayed in front of her sleeping face. And then he bit it.

A scream of pain indicated the Louise was awake, she lifted her hand and spotted a squirrel still hanging from her pinky.

„Get it off! Get it off!" her screams audible down the hallway.

_Hmmm maybe I should have put a silence spell on her. _He contemplated.

Finally the squirrel let go and Louise breathed a sign of relief. Searching for the Founder cursed critter, she spotted it on her table standing calmly beside Aeron.

„You!" she pointed her wand towards the squirrel „you dare to bite a noble you furry demon! I will make a pair of gloves out of you!" she started to recite a spell

„Boss! Stop her shes gonna kill me!" the squirrel pleaded

„Naturally, I mean you did take a bite of her finger." Aeron was siting as if nothing was really happening.

The chant stopped „Y-you can talk?" she watched in amazement the squirrel shift his gaze from Aeron to her.

„Yes My Lady, I apologize for the...rudeness but he" pointing at Aeron „wanted to be creative in waking you"

Her glare settled on him „Can you explain familiar?"

„What can I say, it worked" he shrugged

„Wait! You are a familiar? O that's rich!" turning to Louise „ I hope My Lady will distribute proper punishment to the bastard!" the squirrels tail moved excitedly.

She stared at the rodent „What are you anyway? Squirrel usually don't talk."

„Well I wasn't always a squirrel, my name is Zanven Silverleaf I was a simple bard wandering the Sword Coast, earning my living by singing. That is until I met this guy" pointing again at Aeron „he turned me into a squirrel and forced me to become his familiar"

Looking at the unfortunate squirrel Louise felt pity at him and pierced Aeron with a glare „Any last words before I send you to the Founder?"

„Only that your late for breakfast" he watched with a grin as her face slowly went from anger to panic „I'm late!" she yelled and dashed to her drawers to change.

Aeron shifted his gaze on the Squirrel „A simple bard? The last I heard you were running from the Zhents for freeing their slaves, you were lucky I persuaded them to forgive you".

„Hey it's not entirely untrue, I'm not a fan of wands pointed in my general direction. And we both hate slavery so you can't fault me for my little stunt. As for the Zhentarim, unleashing a pack of shadows on them is NOT persuasion. If it's not bad enough that you are a Cyricist, but a Necromancer on top of that makes my tail twitch".

„Well I'm all ears if you have a better way of avoiding the bounty that's on your head, besides you only have to hide for a short time before they give up on the whole thing. And I still think you are better this way"

„Curse you Corpselover" Zanven glared at him,

„Nutlicker" Aeron glared back right at the squirrel.

Their staring contest was interrupted when Louise stormed out of her room, Aeron quickly rose from his chair shifting in his snake form and followed her out.

„Zanven, there is a large library in the central tower if your interested, it has a lot of useless knowledge that your kind loves to collect".

The squirrel shot him an annoyed look before making a smile „Thanks, I think I will take a look" with that the squirrel stormed to the tower.

_Did the fuzzy cast haste or what?_ Aeron thought looking at his companion, or rather the dust that he left behind.

He doubted that he had the necessary speed in his snake form to catch up with Louise but as soon he left the room he spotted her standing in front of a busty redhead with a red lizard whose tail was on fire.

Quickly he slithered up her legs, under her skirt and shirt until his head popped up beside her neck. He extracted himself from her shirt and coiled around her neck watching her scream and shudder from her right shoulder.

XXXX

Louise had a horrible morning. First a talking squirrel bit her, then she came face to breast with Kirche and as a strawberry on top her familiar in snake form molested her by slithering from her legs up to her neck. To make the situation even worse was that she made embarrassing noises and movements from the tickling sensation caused by the snake that damnable Germanian saw.

„My my Louise was that a failed attempt at dancing as well?" Kirche laughed „And what is this, your familiar? What happened with all that boasting you did yesterday, I was under the impression you wanted to summon something grander then I have".

Louise gritted her teeth „Well if you want to know Aeron.."

„_Master I don't think it would be wise to reveal my presence at this moment, a snake is a common summon, humans are not, they would only tease you more" Hope her foolish pride wont spoil everything._

She thought about for a minute before cooling down „As I was saying Aeron is a good familiar, if you remember Gimly also summoned a snake"

Kirche giggled „I thought her name was Josephine? Have you searched for his privates to confirm his gender? Or are his assets so insignificant that you were unable to tell the difference between male or female?"

„ZERBST! Do me a favor and return to Germania and bother someone else with your improper behavior!" Louise had the appearance of a tomato thinking what the redhead pervert said.

„Well they do say that master and familiar share common traits, in this case the lack of ...„ she stared at her chest and smirked before turning her back and walking down the corridor with her familiar, leaving a red faced Louise behind.

_50% Embarrassment, 50% Anger and 100% Entertainment...now if I only had some popcorn_. Aerons thoughts were interrupted when a hand grabbed him around the neck and pulled him face to face with an enraged brat.

„YOU! I'm going to feed you to Tabitas dragon!"

„_Who me?"_ he asked innocently

„You defiled a young maidens body you pervert!"

„_Can you shout maybe louder master I don't think all the academy heard you"_

And true to his words a few students glanced at her.

Now completely embarrassed she just marched to the mess-hall without another word.

„_First, you should talk to me with your mind, no sense letting everybody on our conversations. Second this body is very slow so I need you to carry me, and I apologies for my rude way to reach your shoulder but it was the most direct path"._

She huffed _„Very well,I will forgive you this time, since we are getting to know each other you will tell me about yourself, from where you came from and demonstrate more of your magic"._

He rolled his eyes, it seems the memory of yesterday was already erased from her mind.

The mess-hall was quite large. Three long tables, lined with chairs, exotic food and students with a variance of hair color that bordered on the absurd.

Louise herself walked with her head held high, fully ignoring the conversations from everyone that surrounded her.

Aeron felt absolutely out-of-place, the interior was suffocating with all its sickening pomp, she pulled the chair and took a seat.

„_Master, since we have ample time to talk while you eat I will explained who I am."_

„_Very well, proceed_"

„_As I mentioned before I was born in the Netherese Empire taken as an apprentice in the art of magic when I was 6, at the age of 24 I finished my apprenticeship and since then I served Lord Shadow as part of the Netherese military". Not to mention I'm an over 247 years old Shade, and Viceroy of a prosperous city-state but she does not need to know that."The Netheres empire is a large nation whose goals are establishing peaceful relations and advancement of trade for the good of all"... or not._

She listened to him while she ate „_So what about the magic demonstration?"_

„_As soon as you finish eating"._

„_That reminds me don't you need to eat?"_

„_No, I have a ring of sustenance similar to the one I gave you. I don't require any food, drink or sleep"._

„_So when will the ring take effect?"_

„_In a week, but you will still need 2 hours of sleep a day"_

„_Finished, let's go out and see what you can do"_ she used a napkin to clean up and went out where the other students will be bonding with their familiars.

As soon as they were in an empty corridor Aeron jumped from her shoulder and took on the shape of a gorgeous white haired maid.

Louise frowned „Why a maid?"

„Why not? All I have to do is provoke one of the mages out there"

She hmd „I don't believe they will bother with a simple servant"

„Now, now Louise it's not good to underestimate people without magic they can be as dangerous as any mage" he chided playfully

„I don't believe it. A commoner fighting a mage has the same chances as a whelp against a war-hound, no even less".

_She's a big none believer it_ _seems_ „And what if the commoner learned magic?"

„Commoners cant learn magic! If they could use magic they would be nobles not commoners". She fumed

"How about a bet?"

She scoffed

He pulled out a premade Magic Contract or to be more accurate a soul contract „How about this then, if I make a commoner able to use arcane magic I win the bet and if I fail I will give you anything you wish and I mean ANYTHING".

She wanted to prove him that he can't teach commoners magic,...but mother warned her about signing documents...

„What, cat got your tongue?" he smirked

She scowled, grabbed the contract and signed it. _Whats the worst that can happen, its impossible for commoners to become mages, and I'm underage even if he won there is nothing that he can demand from me under court law._

_Should I be happy I got her soul or disappointed that she's a moron? _he thought "Don't you want to read it first? Its un..."

„Who cares, commoners can't use magic. Now get on with it" she ordered.

Aeron shrugged, it's not his problem she is impulsive. A insane grin twisted his now female face „Ohhhh this is going to be so much fun! I can almost taste it, I already have a victim in mind" he said laughing insanely.

Louise suppressed a shudder „Familiar no killing, we don't want to attract too much unwanted attention don't we?" honestly she didn't want anybody to get seriously hurt, but that would sound weak.

He looked aghast, eyes wide „Louise! How can you be so cruel!"

„What?"she was confused, he is the killer, why accuse her of being cruel?

„No killing?! That`s inhuman! Its one of the basic human rights, it written so in the second amendment even".

„The second what?"

„...an idiotic piece of paper" he commented mockingly

She sighted „Just get out there and don't kill anybody in the demonstration. Try to find someone strong that is not a professor here, they wont be easy to taunt as a student".

„Roger-roger!" with that he walked out of the corridor into the yard leaving a confused Louise wondering _Who the hell is Roger?_

_XXXX_

_**T.A.M– Fenris Library**_

Mr. Colbert was a teacher who had dedicated twenty years to Tristain Magic Academy. His Runic name was "Colbert the Flame Snake." Since the Springtime Familiar Summoning a few days ago, he'd been concerned about the snake that Louise had summoned. Or more precisely, he'd been concerned the runes that had appeared on the animals side. He'd never seen anything like them, and so for the last few days, he'd done nothing but research the various texts for a reference. Colbert was now in a section called "Fenrir's Library" that only teachers were able to access.

He levitated up to an out-of-reach shelf and scanned it intently for a particular book. His efforts were rewarded as his gaze fell upon the title of the book. It was a very old text which held descriptions of the familiars that had been used by the Founder Brimir, he already read the book but he still needed to compare some points.

His attention was focused on one particular paragraph written in it, and as he read on in fascination. He compared the book with the sketch he'd made of the runes.

„Now that is interesting" a small voice surprised him. Colbert with a staff in hand turned around...but there was nobody there.

Slipping back to his soldier training he prepared a spell that would incapacitate the intruder „Who`s there?"

After searching the library for the third time he shook his head „Better to take it easy for today, I'm already hearing voices" he picked up the books and placed them at the end of the table for tomorrows research before departing.

XXXX

_**T.A.M – Estri courtyard**_

He looked over the familiars that were waiting around, except the blue dragon, all were normal familiars...until he was standing eye to eye with a beholder...except it only looked like one, obviously possessing no intelligence to talk about, he was almost tempted to summon a beholder – a Gauth – to laugh when it sees his retarded cousin, but the thought passed fast.

„Honestly, WTF are you?" Aeron watch the creature until a voice behind him draw his attention.

„Its a bugbear" the maid proclaimed happily, he return to stare at the now retreating creature

„Bugbear?" _does that even make sense?_

„What part of it looks like it deserves that name?" He fought and killed bugbears on multiple occasions, this thing still look like a beholder – or more precise an eyeball type of beholder only unintelligent.

Returning back to the maid, he noted that the girl possessed black hair that was unusual in this land as far as he could tell_._

„Hello, my name is Lorelei Springfield a pleasure to meet you" Aeron introduced himself with a polite smile.

The maid blushed slightly „Umm..hallo I'm Siesta, are you a new maid perchance?"

„That I am" Aeron bowed slightly, smiling warmly. A smile that never reached his eyes.

„I didn't know we would get additional workers, not that I'm complaining. Would you mind helping me with serving the students the tea and deserts?"

„Of course, I would be more than happy to help"

Aeron grabbed the cakes and tea and made his way to entertainment.

He served a good number of students before he found his prey, all the will Louise was watching him from the distance, observing how most males were ogling him/her and the females were raging silently from envy.

His target was scratching a giant mole's mane affectionately, "...oke with Verdandi all night, Montmorency."

"Really..?" The blonde, didn't seem too convinced. "All... night, right?" The hesitancy was evident, and the reason for it was, as well.

"Of course!" Guiche affirmed.

"These smart eyes, this intensely soft fur! ,She was destined to become my familiar!"

"But, I have been hearing rumors that you are seeing a first year girl. Is this true?"

"Of course not. I cannot.."

„ ...tell a lie in front of your eyes." Aeron smiled as the blondes eyes widened in surprise

"W-Who are you!" Guiche asked indignantly ogling the beautiful girl.

„Only a humble servant to the One"

„Which one?"

„The One and All" he would have grinned about the blondes confusion. Since Cyrics titles are unknown in this world he could flaunt them openly, unlike in the realms where being a Cyricist has the same effect like shouting `Plague!`

„So you..what was the name again...Guiche that's right! You didn't like that first years souffle or what?" Aeron inquired.

"What is she saying! Who is she anyway?!" Montmorency snapped, to the distraught Guiche

"Return to your task, servant!" the blond fop snapped, rapidly getting to his feet

"Guiche, what is she talking about?" Montmorency asked, anger in her voice.

„I honestly don't know" Guiche bluffed, not wanting to continue the conversation he opted for evading it.

"Montmorency! Let us depart!" preparing to leave but was stopped by a few simple words from the maid.

„Katie over here!" she shouted

Guiche froze, sweat poring from his head.

"Lord Guiche!" Katie yelled happily.

Aeron watch the drama with gusto, all Cyricists had a love for schadenfreude and he was no exception.

"Montmorency. This is a misunderstanding. All I did was accompany her on a long trip to the forests of La Rochelle..." Guiche said, shaking his head. While he was pretending to remain composed, cold sweat ran down his forehead.

"Just as I thought! You've been making moves on that first year, haven't you?!"

That was accompanied by a bitch slap, before she turn around and stormed off.

"Master Guiche..."

"It's a misunderstanding Katie, listen.." but the he never managed to end the sentence when he received a second slap on the other cheek.

"It would seem those ladies do not understand the meaning of a rose's existence." Guiche stated rubbing his cheeks.

„The meaning of a rose is fragility, short life and a boring death, next time use something more durable." _Oh man this is almost as good as the drow battle arenas...well not really..._

"Y-You!" he yelled, pointing his rose wand at the maid. "You don't know who you're messing with!" He had a grin on his face now, forgetting the humiliation from before. "For making two beautiful girls cry you will have to make it up to me."

Aeron was ecstatic _all to easy_ „Why should I? It was your own fault, you can't blame me for it"

„Listen servant, Im a noble you do what your betters command you to do, is that understood!"

_It seems the local nobility was even more stuck-up then the Red Wizards, or what was left of them after Szass Tams little grab for power_.

The maid whimpered and nodded her head „Yes, my lord"

Guiche smiled predatory „Good, meet me in front of the forest where the familiar summoning takes place when your shift ends and don't be late or I will not show mercy".

Looking excited Guiche and a few of his friends left levitating to the designed spot.

Siesta gazed at Aeron, her entire body shaking.

Aeron spoke with a smile. "Don't worry, Siesta everything is fine"

"You... You're going to get... they will...please you have to run away!" she was hyperventilating now.

"Don't worry Siesta, I knew Guiche since we were children it's not proper for commoners and nobles to be friends so we have to act like strangers in public, so don't worry about him harming me."

She calmed down somewhat after Loreleis explanation "Friends?..Oh God...you gave me a scare, I thought he was going to ravish you."

Aeron giggled „My, Siesta you have such a naughty mind"

Siesta blushed, but gave him a wink „Well there is nothing wrong about being honest with ones body, but its time for me to go back to my duties, and you should not let Guiche waiting" she giggled but made a serious face „But be careful, he has a reputation of being a flirt, I wouldn't be surprised if he would try to seduce you". With that she turned around and went to the kitchen.

Louise approached him from behind.

"Were all that theatrics really necessary?" she was annoyed by the whole subservient female act

"You wouldn't deprive me of at least a bit of fun master?" he asked with a cheshire grin on his/her face.

Louise eyed him if he was insane, sighting she resigned herself for the inevitable "So what now?"

Aeron grinned „Not telling, if you want to know you will have to accompany me".

XXXX

_**Tristain – outside the magic academy**_

Guiche and his two friends spotted the approaching maid and grinned.

„So you came, smart" _Well not really, but it's not if she had any choice, she is after all only a commoner_.

She stood there silently looking at her feet until two hands grabbed her arms and dragged her into the forest.

She struggled but the two students pressed her body on the grass as Guiche let his pants drop and removed her underwear. Spreading her legs she screamed as he penetrated into her, over and over again. When he was finished he went to grab one of the arms so his friends can have their turn and so it went on for quite some time, the maid stopped struggling a long time ago but still they held her pinned down. The cries and sobbing only making them pumping their hips harder.

XXXX

Louise cried as she watched beside Aeron with disgust what her classmates were doing, she would have already done something about it but the two of them were standing in a globe of invisibility and magic silence, with her hands held tightly in his she could do nothing except watch the sickening display. The absence of sound didn't really help, she could still see the maid scream and cry, plead for help and receive pain instead.

„_Enough, what do you want to prove with this! Stop them already! I command you!"_

„_I'm shoving you magic"_ He took one of his rings off and put it on her finger.

Aeron let her go before she throw up.

Louise was kneeling as she emptied her stomach, now she knew why he didn't stop them.

„_The ring is on of true seeing, It reveals all illusions and leaves only the truth"._

In the forest the three students were pining a woman to the ground.

A dead woman.

Her skin was maggot infested and rotting, the dress she was wearing was half decayed, and the most disgusting thing were the movements of her bony hands and skull, she was still alive...or rather dead and alive at the same time – undead.

„_Summoning a zombie?-free of charge, casting an illusion spell on the corpse?-free of charge, watching them getting the scare of their lifetimes?-priceless"._

„_A-Aeron"_ Luise gasped as she struggled to get the vomit out.

„_Yes master?"_

„_Kill them"_

_I wonder If Alucard felt this good when he corrupted Integra? „Yes master!"_ with a shit eating grin he dispelled all the magic in the area.

XXXX

Guiche was deep inside the maid when something bizarre happened. Instead of the warm feeling that should envelop him it felt cold, her smooth skin turned to something he didn't want his Valkyrie to touch with a ten foot bronze pike and the empty sockets of the jawless skull were supposed to have two beautiful teary green orbs in them.

So he acted as any normal person would in his situation. He screamed and jumped away closely followed by his two companions.

„What the hell!"

„What just happened?!"

They quickly stopped talking after they saw the corpse getting to its feet, there semen dripping from the various holes in her lower body.

„I-I don't believe it! Where is the maid?!"

„How the hell should I know!"

„D-Did I really cum inside that thing?!"

Almost rehearsed they throw up simultaneously.

While they were talking and returning their lunch the wrong end first, the zombie continue to slowly walk to them. The students not really looking at the approaching danger remained passive until it was too late. The zombies claw's tore long gashes in the neck of a student who fell on the grass choking to death.

That got the attention of other two students who pulled out there wands and attacked.

Guiche waved his rose shaped wand and three petals fell from it, shining brightly as it touched the ground.

From it rose three golems made of bronze. Guiche would have proclaimed his runic name but somehow it seamed irrelevant in this situation.

Behind the pair Aeron frowned, golems are a pain in the neck to the necromancers and rogues alike, by not being alive almost all his spells were useless, he could kill the mage and sever his control but that would be no fun.

They attacked it with water whips and bronze golems wielding weapons.

The water made little damage to the zombie but the golems were able to hack it to piece's until it stopped moving and turned to ashe.

„Is Gaston still alive?" Panting asked Guiche

„..." Damien shook his head after checking the pulse „No"

„Curses! how are we going to explain this?"

„Oh don't worry you wont have to explain anything" a musical voice from behind them answered.

When they turned around they saw the grinning maid standing beside a pale and tired Louise.

„You bitch! what did you do!" Guiche roared

„Entertainment" she laughed happily.

„I'm going to fucking entertain you before I kill you" he send his golems to attack his target while Damiel used his water whips to entangle Louise.

"My runic name is Guiche the Bronze, therefore, this bronze Valkyrie shall be your opponents!"

Aeron sighted, and pulled out his longsword, it seems he would have to do it the hard way hacking and slashing instead using the more refined arts of...pest control.

The golems charged him with their weapons...and were effortlessly cut in half , bodies and weapons alike.

Guiche watched in amazed as his golems fell apart from one clean strike.

He waved his rose wand. Petals danced, and four new golems appeared. Altogether, seven golems were his full arsenal. Never had he thought that a mere commoner could be a match for three of his prized creations.

„My my, Guiche is that all to your magic?, I saw goblins that deserved to be called mages more than you." _That should piss him off. _

However it failed to taunt the earth mage, he wasn't a generals son for nothing, rushing in blindly would not help him win this fight. Instead of sending his Valkyrie on the maid with the sword she drew from somewhere he send only one golem to distract her while the remaining three helped Damiel to incapacitate Louise and use her as a hostage.

When Aeron started an incantation the students thought she was rambling out of fear,"Greater Fireburst" a ring of fire erupted from the ground, and to Guiches horror all his golems simply melted down leaving only pools of red hot bronze in addition evaporating Damiels water whips.

Pointing his finger at the water mage Aeron started another incantation finishing it with a calm „Disintegrate" turning the student to dust_._

In his despair Guche summoned a sword to replace his wand, Aeron stopped and started another incantation „Create Undead". In front of him wisps of darkness started to rise obscuring it from view, and when the darkness dissipated it revealed a corpse silently standing, staring at Guiche.

„W-W-Wh-What i-is that?!" Guiche stuttered, horrified by the abomination that appeared in front of them.

Louise felt like throwing up again, but managed to suppress the not to noble action, the smell of the creature or the cold sickening aura didn't help in that regard. The thing looked like a human skeleton that still had some of his internal organs present even if its bones were picked clean of any flesh.

„This, my naive friend is a mohrg, an undead created from corpses of mass murderess and other interesting people" Aeron stated calmly, directing his attention to the morgh, he dismissively commanded „Kill him".

The undead attacked unbelievably fast, only a quick reflex saved Guiche from falling prey to its claw's.

Using what skill in sword fighting he had Guiche pushed his sword in the morgh's ribcage, where the heart would be, the blade easily pierced the rotten organs it still carried.

But to the undead creature the injury was trivial, organic tendrils slowly enveloped the blade and the morgh quickly grabbed at its prey that evaded the attack, but lost his sword/wand in the process, which was left stuck in its chest.

_What do I do! What do I do! What kind of magic can summon the dead to fight for you? Is it Ancient magic? Or maybe Void? _As he was thinking the morgh dashed and grabbed him by the shoulder, Guiche panicked „I Yield! I yield! Please don't kill me!" he cried.

The morgh was not bothered by pleading of its victim as it paralyzed him with its tongue, immobilized Guiche looked with horror as the things claw's penetrated deep into his chest and pulled big chunk's of organs and flesh to devoure.

„Well so much for that. So Louise what do you think about the presentation?"

She looked rather pale, and on the edge of a mental breakdown. _Good._

„I-I wish to go back to my room. c-can you dispose of..." a glance at the feeding morgh stopped her sentence, only to turne around and walke back to the academy without a word.

Aeron watched her leave, he know she would not tell a soul what happened here, anything her familiar does reflects on her and he just killed three nobles. With a shrug he turned back to the dead. Dispelling the morgh and returning into his Assassin form he drag the corpses into the Shadowfell, about the burned grass and molten bronze he could do little but it wont help anyone from conecting it with them, no smell, witneses or footprints were left.

He turned to follow his master back to the academy, the day was fun and the night is young, so much can still be accomplished.

XXXX

_**T.A.M – Louise's room**_

Louise was in her bed processing what happened today. _How will I look my classmates in the eye? How will I tell Cattleya what i did?_ She felt like a part of her died this day.

Aeron emerged from the shadow of her wardrobe.

Looking at her, he almost felt sorry for destroying a part of her innocence, almost.

„What troubles you Louise?"

She looked at him „You or rather you willingness to kill."

„Ohh and whats wrong about killing?"

„Its- its wrong, simply wrong! immoral! inhuman! To take someones life is to take everything from him, his dreams, his very future, not to mention the sadness that's left behind!"

Grinning insanely he bend down to look her directly in the eyes „A system of morality which is based on relative emotional values is a mere illusion, a thoroughly vulgar conception which has nothing sound in it and nothing true".

He approached the window, looking at the moons that illuminated the night sky of Halkegenia. He was always fond of moons...except for the two he was watching now „To live is to kill. You live by consuming life, its illogical to be against killing. I traveled many world Louise and all of them have one thing in common, if there is life there's killing. Some do it for food, others for sport and then there are the fools that kill for ideals. To be unbloodied only means you are to much of a coward to do the killing yourself. How many life's do you think your mother crushed?"

„That is different! That was war, and mother protected us!"

„Yes, she killed peasants who had no choice but to go against Tristain. If they refused they and their families would be branded traitors, and you know what happens to traitors in wartime. Your mother killed people who only wanted to stay home, take care of their farm and make their family happy".

„So what, we were in the wrong? We should have just let them march and take our land because they had no choice?" she growled

He chuckled „Oh no, if you lost those same peasants would have probably looted and raped their way through Tristain"

„B-but, you said they were good people who wanted to stay at home!"

He laughed „Good people? There is no such thing. People will do the most vile acts if they think they can get away with it, if nobody else will know. Humans show only the veneer of civilization, hiding their true nature behind masks. Even you Louise, you act nice around other people, but you are jealous of their magic, and more then once you wished them harm simply out of spite, don't deny it, I saw it in your mind".

She bit her lip, he was right she did that „You make it sound like we are barbarians...or worse animal"

„And what is the difference between animals and humans? We are animals, intelligent animals perhaps, but still animals. In fact we are worse than any other because our minds give us unsurpassed potential for violence and cruelty".

She quietly contemplated his words, his actions were wrong but his words were true...but that means his actions were correct...or not? There must be some flaw in his reasoning, she only needed to find it to make a argument. Aeron decided he wont give her the time, it would be better to push his advantage.

He shrugged „If you are so putt off about my willingness to kill I wish to point out that they were scum. If left on their own they would grow up even more twisted, their deaths will probably spare much sorrow in the future".

She hugged her knees under the blanket „Still, I knew them, I laughed with them, ate with them, learned with them. But the worst is...how will I face my sister...she is so pure if I were to embrace her it would be like touching a white dress with bloodied hands, ruining it irreversibly".

Aeron was quiet, when he spots a person so pure as Louise described he usually makes a BIG detour around him or her.

„I understand you. I also keep my distance from people pure (_naive, ignorant_) of heart, preferring company of only those that are similar to me".

She didn't know what to say, his words were not comforting in the least, she opted for a change of subject since she wanted a distraction from her thoughts „Do you have any brothers or sister?"

„Oh plenty, every single one of them is as bad as I am". He chuckled

„You are not a demon by some chance are you?" she asked with a smile on her face but there was no mirth in her eyes, they were duller. The power, the joy he took in ending life, it would not surprise her if he were a demon in human skin.

„No...my kind is considered a subspecies of humanity, we hate demons since we had...unpleasant dealings with them in the past."

She looked at him intrigued with his words „Your kind?"

„I'm a Shade, when a Shadovar - that is the name given to citizen's of Thulthantar- accomplishes a great task he or she is given a reward to become Shades. Our souls are fused with shadows and we gain vast powers when in the darkness. We are...well you could say immortal since no Shade died from old age and we have impressive regeneration so unless we are instantly slain we will recover from any wound. We can walk through shadows and darkness to enter the realm of the Goddess Shar to shorten our travels...".

This piqued her interest „Goddess? Like Brimir?" she would have screamed at him for heresy but somehow with all the things that were happening, this was not such a big deal.

„Hmmm no. From what I learned I don't believe Brimir reached divinity". He was honest, it was highly unlikely that Brimir would become a God.

„Explain, how can you be certain your Goddess is real and Brimir not" she was getting annoyed with her know-it-all familiar, stating that there are other gods beside Brimir was heresy, stating that he never became a God was...was extra heretical!

„Shar is not my Goddess even if her fate is predominant in the empire. As for her existence...from where I come from Gods give their priests magic that cures wounds or diseases and even brings people back to life. From what I learned of your church clergy they are simply commoners or mages who preach a dogma and nothing more. They gain no power with their prayers".

She frowned „Is that true? Bringing people from the dead?"

„Yes, you must understand that Gods are simply very strong spirits, imagine a water spirit so powerful that it has enough power to give to those it deems for worthy".

„You have some very caring gods there if they just drop all that power for asking nicely"

He snorted all mirth gone from him „Don't delude yourself, they give power so the priests can convert more people to their faith. You see Gods can die and their power is not absolute. The more faithful they have the more power they gain thru prayer. And if a God looses all his worshipers it dies, or is killed by a stronger one".

„So why doesn't Brimir give magic?" she asked.

„Probably because he died as a mortal" he laid down on the straw pile „there are tree known ways how a mortal as Brimir can become a God" she listened carefully not wanting to miss such knowledge.

„The first way is to be made a God by another God, an example of this is Uthgard the god of strength. He was a fierce barbarian who died of his wounds after wining in an epic battle against Gurt, the Lord of Pale giants when he invaded their lands. Tempus the God of war was pleased with him and made him into a demigod".

„The second is through a ritual that gives you divinity, Karsus was a Netheres mage that created a spell that would steal the power of a God and transfer it to him. In his case he wanted the power of Mystril the goddess of magic, but unable to hold her wast power he started the cataclysm that was named Karsus folly. The goddess was forced to sacrifice herself for a split second that resulted in her rebirth as Mystra – goddess of magic. In short he failed because he chose the wrong god. A better example is Velsharoon who was a Zulkir of necromancy. He used a spell given to him by the God Talos and became a demigod".

„Seams Karsus bit off more than he could chew" she mumbled

„The third way is the best one, as a mortal you fight a God and absorb his essence when you kill him".

„FIGHT A GOD?! You jest! That is impossible!" she forgot all her problems as she listened to his story

„Ohh but it is possible, Cyric became a Greater God first by killing Bhall the former God of Murder, then taking over the portfolios of Bane the God of Strife and Myrkul the God of Death. He then killed Leira the Goddess of Deception and took her portfolio, later taking also the portfolio of Intrigue from Mask the God of thief's".

She cracked a smile „A ambitious one isn't he or should I say bloodthirsty...that silver skull on your armor wouldn't be his symbol would it?"

This time it was Aerons turn to smile „You are perceptive. Yes I'm indeed a follower of Cyric the Black Sun".

„Have you ever spoken to him?"

„...Once, we made a deal so to speak and I still have to accomplish my side of the bargain".

„...So does it have to do something with me?"

He chuckled „No...you don't have to worry about that".

„So...no Brimir?" Louise was raised to be a pious member of society, always doing what the adults asked of her...and now all their truths seamed hollower, all that blind faith in them somehow misplaced.

„No probably not, since Brimir died a mortal he could not become a God without a Greater God elevating him".

„So what about the souls of the dead?" she asked

„They are going to the Fugue plain and probably staying there since there are no ghosts running around this world. That indicates that at least you have a God of Death, or the souls are sent to a God of Death that is not native to this world".

„...could they simply disappear into nothingness?"

„...yes, there are primordials still unknown that devour souls and it wouldn't surprise me if one or more used this world as a feeding ground".

She laughed at his words „Somehow that cheered me up...strange don't you think?"

„If you want something to cheer you up try this" he snapped his fingers and a piece of cake floated on a plate in front of her.

„Its called Schwarzwald torte, try it"

She eyed the desert, not certain how he could make cakes appear from thin air, the magic was far superior from the earth magic creation spells.

Taking a bite, she let the sweet taste wash over her tongue, it really did manage to bring up a smile, the cake was delicious.

He smiled watching her eat

„Does it taste good?"

She nodded, happily munching on the treat

„Does it make you happy?"

„Yes"

„There are so many things that make us happy. Pleasure can be achieved from any single thing. A good joke, a piece of cake or a myriad of other things. There is really no need to hope for a better tomorrow when you have the power to shape every single second to your liking. Instead of bashing your head over things that happened rather focus so your future will be a happy one".

„...that sounds like something Kirche would say" she grumbled „so basically I should simply live to be happy?"

„There is a thought that all people have the right to do everything in their power to achieve the greatest amount of pleasure possible to them. It is also the idea that every person's pleasure should far surpass their amount of pain. So Louise have you been happy until now? Have your fellow students, your parents done anything that gives your happiness?"

She reverted back into her teary eyes shell „No" she whispered

„Do you want to be happy?"

She nodded meekly

He grinned „I can help you, with my magic you can achieve anything! Immortality? I know of a dozen ways to achieve it. Eternal youth? Piece of cake. Divinity? Possible. Wealth? Easy as breathing!"

Her thoughts were raising with possibilities that were given to her _If his magic is really so strong perhaps he could cure Cattleya, even if I become a bad person...if Cattleya will be happy..._ „And whats the catch?"

„There is no catch, when you summoned me I saw power in you. Power that your moronic teachers ignored and your pears mocked! I wish to see them when you smirk in their faces and hold their future in your hands!"

She closed her eyes, she took a deep breath and made her choice „Deal!" she said.

His grin becoming wider „First what class do you have tomorrow?" he inquired

She looked thoughtful „Earth magic, we will probably transmute things as usual"

„Then we still have time to teach you some spells".

„Which ones?"

„Transmute solid and Transmute gold, either is well inside your competency from what I see of your willpower".

She grinned „I will be able to make gold?"

„As much as you wish" he answered

She would never admit it but the psychotic familiar was actually far more entertaining then any of her classmates...if you adjust to his twisted humor that is.

„Now let the magic lessons begin!" he announced with a smile

Louise learned the two spells with ease and opted to go to bed early since the day was stressful and she appreciated the darkness of sleep.

Aeron used this time to shadow walk to the library to find Zanven. He was fascinated with the new lore he acquired, Aeron did not want to comment that bards have a fascination with a lot of useless garbage that prevented them from mastering any single skill adequately, what he didn't expect was a possible explanation why Louise had problems with her own magic – and a way to enable her magic to work.

He entered her room quietly, as Louise was still asleep so he took his scroll container and started to pull out scrolls that would not be to challenging, mostly illusion spells ignoring the necromancy and evocation spells.

Having a lot of time on his hands he decided to entertain himself with some crafting. In this case a wand of magic missiles.

XXXX

„Munia"

_She really makes weird noises when waking._

It took her a few minutes until she registered her surroundings.

„What are you doing?" she inquired

„I'm making a wand for you to use in case of emergencies" he answered without looking from his work.

„But I already have a wand?" she stated confused.

„Not that sort of wand, this wand has a spell stored inside, it has a number of charges that you can use in case your exhaust all your willpower".

Her eyes went wide „You mean this wand does not consume my willpower?!"

„Yes, and you don't have to chant spells, only vocalize the trigger word and it will fire, just remember to point it at an enemy".

„I know how to use a wand!" she growled „so whats the trigger word?"

„For this wand its Bleed"

„...that's sounds a little malevolent" she grimaced

Aeron looked at her „I can always put in another password, how about ′Candy′, just imagine yourself with a wand killing people shouting candy around".

„Not funny, and I will not kill any people" she deadpanned crossing her arms on her chest.

„Then you better be good at aiming, this spell can be lethal if it hits vitals".

He stopped his crafting and pointed to come closer to her desk, where a handful of scrolls were placed. Some were enchantment, but most were illusion spells. She followed him and slowly picked up one of the scrolls. „Charm person?"

„Yes, all this is your homework when we return so to say, you have to memorize the spells like the last one and then try casting one from the scroll, naturally I will give you lessons in runes and with time you will have to learn draconic and elvish tongues. Just to make certain, Louise please cast again the ′Silent Image′ spell".

She nodded and after perfectly reciting the spell „Silent Image" in the room stood...or rather growled a Kirche copy, opening her mouth in apologies without words actually coming out.

Aeron raised his eyebrow „Well, all seems in order". Dismissing the spell Louise returned to the desk.

„Why are there only illusion and enchantment spells here?" she asked

„Illusion and enchantments are the spells that are the least likely to be fatal if miscast. Or would you prefer evocation or necromancy?" he grinned

„No, I would like to learn evocation but not necromancy, its unnatural...it gives me nightmares" She shuddered.

Aeron snorted „Again I'm faced with prejudice against my magic. If you think its more merciful to burn someone to death or leave him scared for the rest of his life then you are mistaken. Necromancy is quite merciful, if you fail to resist the spell you instantly die. No pain no suffering, your soul simply departs your body...depending of the spell".

Louise thought it over and slowly nodded her head „Your right...I never thought about it that way".

„You should get dressed now Louise, you don't want to be late for class" he commented

With a nod she went to get changed.

As he finished the wand he walked to her „Here, you know the trigger word so you only need to point and shoot".

„How many charges does it have?" she inquired

„Twenty" he stated

She took the wand and placed it on the belt she was given by Aeron.

„Aeron...I need to ask you something"

„Yes?"

„My sister Cattleya is sick and our water mages are unable to cure her...can your magic help?"

He smirked „Mages are not specialized in healing but I do have one spell that can help, but for healing I usually drag Zanven around, I'm more for inflicting wounds not curing them".

„So...you can cure her?" she looked at him with puppy eyes.

He smiled „Easy as pie", he shifted his form in that of a snake and she placed him on her shoulder as he coiled around her neck. With that they left her room.

XXXX

_**T.A.M – classroom**_

The classrooms in the Academy of Magic was designed as a lecture hall. The lecturing teacher stood at the lowest level, and the seats were arranged upward like stairs. When Louise entered, student in the room mostly ignored her being to preoccupied with other matters like small talk, gossiping or flirting. Aeron could only grimace when he saw the design of the room, the number of students for one teacher and the lack of interest for learning – the children were here simply because they had to, not because they wanted to.

The door opened, and the teacher entered.

She was a middle-aged woman dressed in a voluminous purple robe and wearing a painfully stereotypical wizard hat, and no matter how much Edwin boasted a pointy hat will NOT make you kick Elminsters ass. She had a plump, round face with a friendly expression on it.

The woman gazed around the classroom and spoke with a satisfied smile.

"Well, everyone, it seems that the Springtime Familiar Summoning was a great success. I always enjoy seeing the new familiars that are summoned each spring."

"Now then, let's begin the lesson."

Chevreuse coughed heavily and waved her wand. A few pebbles materialized on her desktop.

"My Runic name is 'Red Clay.' Chevreuse the Red Clay. This year, I will be teaching you all the magic of the Earth element. Do you know the four great elements of magic, Mister Malicorne?"

"Y-Yes, Mrs. Chevreuse. They are Fire, Water, Earth and Wind."

Chevreuse nodded.

"And combined with the now-lost element of 'Void,' there are five elements in total - as everyone should already know. Of the five elements, I believe Earth holds an extremely important position. This isn't just because my affinity is Earth, nor is it simply a personal preference."

Once again, Chevreuse coughed heavily.

"The magic of Earth is very important magic that governs the creation of all matter. If it wasn't for Earth magic, we wouldn't be able to produce or process necessary metals. Raising buildings from large boulders and harvesting crops would also involve much more work. In this manner, the magic of the Earth element is intimately related to everyone's life."

„_...Louise can I kill the ignorant hag?_"

„_No! You can do that after I graduate_" she smiled,

„_...That makes sense..."_

"Now, everyone, please recall that the basic magic of the Earth element is 'transmutation'. While there will be people here who have already learned this in their first year, basics build foundations, so let's review it once more."

Chevreuse turned her attention to the pebbles and twirled her wand over them.

She then whispered a spell, and they began to glow brightly.

When the light dimmed away, the pebbles had been changed into sparkling lumps of metal.

"Is that g-g-gold, Mrs. Chevreuse!?"

Kirche leaned forward over her desk.

"No, it isn't. It's plain brass. Only Square-class mages are able to transmute to gold. I'm just..." Chevreuse gave a self-important cough. "A Triangle mage..."

„Now who wants to demonstrate?"

To the shock of the students the person who raised her wand was Louise.

„Ah, Miss Vallière come down please" she smiled as Louise approached her.

"Umm..." s student raised his hand

"Yes?" Chevreuse inquired

"I think it would be better if you didn't let her..."

"And why is that?"

"It's dangerous," Kirche answered plainly. The majority of the class nodded in agreement.

"Dangerous? How so?"

"This is your first time teaching Louise, right?"

"It is, but I hear she's a hard worker. Now, Miss Vallière. Don't you worry, just try it. You won't be able to do anything if you dread making mistakes."

"Don't, Louise!" Kirche cried, her face pale.

But Louise didn't even bother listening to their complaints.

Chevreuse stood next to Louise and smiled.

"Miss Vallière, you have to visualize vividly the metal that you wish to transmute them into."

„_Hah, Just do as you practiced and you can't fail, or you can simply turn them all to gold so we have peace either way its a win"_ Aeron stated

Louise pointed her wand at the pebbles on the desk and discretely with the other hand cast the spell while she whispered the incantation „Transmute solid".

On the table the pebbles turned into brass

Mrs. Chevreuse looked pleased with the results.

„Excellent work , you can go back to your seat".

The students had prepared themselves for an explosion but when they heard a compliment from the teacher they were too stunned to reply, their brains unable to process what happened.

Louise smiled as she went back to her desk, enjoying the silence and shocked facial expressions on the faces of her tormentor's.

A soon as she set down, chaos erupted with students screaming about the end of days and cheating, while the teacher attempted to reinstate some order. She ignored it all as she telepathically spoke with her familiar.

„_I'm surprised I thought you would transmute gold, now that would have been a sight_" he hissed/laughed

„_I didn't want to push it, ____'_Transmute gold___'_ is still somewhat difficult for me, but with practice I will master it. And actually succeeding a spell has the same effect as you see as if I transmuted gold". She giggled

„_I'm truly impressed Louise, it seems you grasped that discretion is the better part of valor" _he nodded approvingly.

„_To be honest with you teaching me I don't see the purpose for taking these boring classes"_ she commented seriously

_Finally! „Hmmm, you are indeed correct I don't see what knowledge they can offer that is worth all the time spend in this place, when we return to your room we will discus that idea further for now let's do something entertaining"_

She raised an eyebrow „_Like what?"_

He would have grinned if his form allowed it „_How do you feel about pranks?_"

She started to fidget _„I-I don't know, it's not something nobles are supposed to do"_

„_Oh don't be so reserved, pranks are an excellent way to practice your creativity, a swift mind is far more valuable than any other virtue...and its fun_" he hissed mirthfully

She was uncertain what to do but Aeron didn't lead her astray for now, so she would give it a try, she asked him what she should do but he answered what she should not do.

Nothing harmful, it would provoke an investigation.

After thinking about what she should do, and what spells she possessed Louise whispered „Silent image"

XXXX

Chevreuse was uncertain why Miss Vallière_'_s spell would cause such chaos in the classroom but she was glad everything is back to normal, with a sigh she prepared to continue her lessons when a scream made a tick mark appeared on her forehead, with a flick of a wrist a piece of clay shot in the students mouth.

„Miss de Montmorency please refrain from shouting, screaming or disturbing the class in the future"

Her anger was soon replaced with confusion when all the students started to back away from her with eyes wide and obviously afraid.

„It was only a piece of clay..." she murmured.

Kirche dragged the unconscious Tabitha to the window, for a quick exit but she managed to stutter „M-Mrs. C-Chevreuse, y-you s-should l-loo-k b-behind you" and since the whole room was dead silent it wasn't hard to hear.

Chevreuse found it strange but she looked behind her and came face to face with an elf or to be more precise a ghost of an elf, it levitated near her back looking with empty eyes sockets at her.

Finally understanding what all commotion was about, she did what was expected of her...she feinted and collapsed.

The next second all the students bolted out through the windows leaving the teacher to the ghostly elf.

Louise barely contained her laughter, dispelling the illusion as she ran through the door back to her room.

XXXX

_**T.A.M – Louise's room**_

She collapsed on the bed, tired from laughter and the running but truly happy.

„T-That was hilarious! I'm never going to forget their faces especially from that Zerbst husi"

„Indeed, wonderful entertainment" he hissed.

She took a few minutes to stop panting and closed her eyes to relax „So what now?"

Shifting back into his assassin form he went to lay down on the straw „Hmm, best if we continue our conversation from the classroom, this facility has outlived its usefulness, so I would propose we relocate to a more beneficial location"

„Oh, what did you have in mind?"

„If I'm not mistaken, the local areas are controlled by a Count Mott, we should take control of them to strengthen your position here"

She opened her eyes and stared at him „You want to kill Count Mott?! Out of the question! He is the Palace messenger not to mention a triangle water mage!"

He laughed „Only if you let me, but jokes aside we don't really need to kill him, we can always turn him into a puppet. You told me that nobles govern lands here, well consider this the first step to proving your mother that your indeed worthy of her praise. You will be able to increase your wealth, learn how to govern properly, have a place where you can practice your new magic freely and do the crown a favor by strengthening a part of the kingdom financially and militarily...I think the princess would be proud of such a feat".

„When do we leave?" she proclaimed all worries forgotten

„As soon as its nightime"

„So what do we do until then?"

„The same thing we do every night pinky, we teach you spells so you can take over the world" he chuckled

„Very funny" she frowned at the name.

„It was for me, but back to the spells" he pointed to the table with the scrolls „your homework awaits, since you haven't mastered the runes yet I will be helping you along today. So let's get down to business".

She nodded and went to the table to pick up a scroll.

„Aeron how do mages of your homeland govern their lands?" _maybe I can get some tips how to govern an estate besides what mother told me._

„Mages from my homeland don't bother holding lands, we are mostly self reliant, wizards are in their towers where they research, sorcerers are always on the move unable to resist the call of adventure. No lands, no servants, no children, no lovers, no loyalty...well most anyway – we simply live for gaining knowledge. Commoners what you would call them are mostly free from nobles, and are only required to enlist in armies or pay a tax for operating businesses in cities".

„How do you pay the armies or build things without money to pay for it?" _and I thought Germanians were barbaric_.

„Oh they have enough money don't you worry, its simple really. The people of my homeland are all required to fight when threatened. Every child knows how to wield a dagger, and if they are invaded it's not about money it's about survival, the population arms itself and the government only has to worry about food since everybody has their own weapons and armor. The problems arise with invasions, since the commoners have no interests in attacking other nations, the ruler has to hire mercenary bands. The exceptions are the Netherese Empire, Thay and the Abolethic Sovereignity".

„So how do they find the funds to wage an aggressive war?"

„The Netherese are aggressive and expansionist, they have a vast number of spellcaters as well as mundane troops. The population of the Empire is well trained and can't refuse an order to march".

„Thay on the other hand is...complicated."She raised her eyebrow on the statement.

He sighted „Thay was a magocracy governed by eight powerful mages known as Zulkirs, each specialized in one school of magic. The Zulkirs relied heavily on slavery to gather unimaginable wealth for themselves. That is until Szass Tam, the Zulkir of necromancy made a grab for power. The other Zulkirs opposed him and a civil war broke out. In the end they were unable to stop his undead armies and were forced to abandon Thay to him. So now Thay is basically ruled by an insane undead Lich, governed by necromancers and its expansionist military is full of undead".

Louise eyes were wide and was obviously shaking

„The Abolethic Sovereignty is a...is even worse than Thay. Its ruled by abolits, something like a bloody big eel-like aberrations that use their psionic abilities to enslave the minds of everybody else and turn them into puppets that fight and work for them".

(THUMP)

He massaged his forehead „Maybe I should not have mentioned that". Turning around from the desk he lifted the unconscious form of Louise of the floor to put her on the bed.

It will be an hour or two before they went back to work.

XXXX

_**T.A.M – Headmasters office**_

The Headmaster's Office was located highest floor of the tower. Sir Osmond, the current Headmaster of Tristain Magic Academy, was sitting behind his elegantly built desk, looking unbearably bored as he shook his white beard and hair.

Looking at nothing in particular, he slowly murmured "Hmm" and pulled open a desk drawer. From inside he procured a smoking pipe. Miss Longueville, the secretary who had been writing something at the other desk placed to the side of the room, waved her feather quill.

The pipe floated into the air and landed in Miss Longueville's palm. Sir Osmond muttered dejectedly, "Is it fun taking away an old man's little pleasures? Miss, um..."

"Managing your health is also part of my job, old Osmond."

Sir Osmond stood up from his chair and walked up to the cool and collected Miss Longueville. Stopping behind the seated lady, he closed his eyes, his expression grave.

"If the days keep passing by so peacefully, figuring out how to spend time is going to become a rather big problem."

"Old Osmond," Miss Longueville spoke up without taking her eyes off the feather quill that was scribbling away on the parchment.

"What is it? Miss..."

"Please stop saying you have nothing to do as an excuse to touch my bottom."

Sir Osmond opened his mouth slightly and began walking around in tottering steps.

"Please also refrain from pretending to be senile whenever a situation goes bad," Longueville added calmly. Sir Osmond sighed deeply.

"Where do you think the ultimate truth may be? Haven't you ever wondered that? Miss..."

"Wherever it is, I assure you, it's not underneath my skirt, so please stop sneaking your mouse under the desk."

Sir Osmond's face fell, and he murmured sadly, "Mótsognir."

From under Miss Longueville's desk scurried out a little mouse. It dashed up Osmond's leg and perched on his shoulder, twitching its tiny head. He fished out some nuts from a pocket and held one out to the mouse.

"Chuchu," the mouse chattered

"You're my only truly trustworthy friend, Mótsognir."

"Chuchu"

"Ah, yes, yes. You want more? Very well, I shall give you more. But first, I would ask that you report back, Mótsognir."

"Chuchu"

"I see. White and plain white too. But Miss Longueville should really stick to black. Wouldn't you agree, my cute Mótsognir?"

Miss Longueville's eyebrows twitched.

"Old Osmond."

"What is it?"

"The next time you do that, I'm reporting it to the palace."

"Bah! Do you think I could be Headmaster of this Academy if I was scared of the palace all the time?"

Sir Osmond flashed his eyes wide and yelled angrily. It was an impressive display, completely unexpected of a frail-looking old man.

"Don't get all prissy just because I peeked at your underwear! At this rate, you'll never get married! Haa To be young again, Miss..." Old Osmond began stroking Miss Longueville's bottom without hesitation.

Miss Longueville stood up and wordlessly kicked her boss around.

"Sorry. Stop. Ow. I won't do it anymore. Really." Old Osmond covered his head and cowered. Miss Longueville breathed heavily as she continued kicking Osmond.

"Ack! How can you! Treat a senior! In this way! Hey! Ouch!"

This peaceful moment was interrupted by a sudden intrusion.

The door was opened, and Colbert walked inside with a frown.

"Old Osmond"

"What is it?"

Miss Longueville was back at her desk, sitting there as if nothing had happened. Sir Osmond had his arms behind him, and turned to face the visitor with a serious expression.

"It seems we have some problems" Colbert answered with a serious face.

"Problems? Can you be a bit more specific Mister, errr..whats your name again?"

Sir Osmond cocked his head.

"It's Colbert! You forgot?"

"Right, right. Now I remember. It's just that you talked so fast I never really caught it. So, Colby , whats the problem?"

„It seams the students refuse to leave their rooms, something about a ghost of an elf haunting the academy, and we have three students unaccounted for, people are convinced that the ghost took them". His expression serious.

„Ghost?" asked the secretary

„Yes, and some of the students already send word to their parents. In my opinion its only a mater of time before they leave the academy out of fear, and there will probably be an investigation send by the Palace officially to determine what transpired here placing the area under quarantine" Colbert answered grimly.

Miss Longvile frowned only half-listening to their conversation _Not according to plan_. _If additional mages come from the palace it will be impossible to enter the vault.I have to break in tonight._

„Do we have any leads on the missing students?" asked Osmond taping his pipe

„No, from eye witnesses they were last seen with a white haired maid, problem is we never hired such a person. Using animals to follow the scent also failed, we tracked it until the edge of the forest, signes of combat were present but no remains were found, its like they simply disappeared from the spot"

„Maybe a dragon or a griffin carried them away?"

„...It is a possibility, in any case this does not look like the work of an undead elf"

„...True...well, we can't do anything for now except increase security"

„That will be somewhat difficult. Professor Chevreus has fainted encountering the ghost, so we are one staff member short and most of us are patrolling the student dormitories"

„...if I'm not mistaken she was supposed to guard the vault tonight, is it a coincidence...or planed?"

„Good thinking headmaster, I wanted to spend time in the library but It would be better if I took over her shift"

„Agreed, well it seems that's that Colby, or is there something else?"

„No, nothing at the moment. Thank you for your time" with that Colbert left the headmasters office, leaving Osmon and deep in thoughts.

XXXX

**_T.A.M – academy stables_**

Using the cover of night, Louise managed to reach the stables undetected, with Aerons suggestion she only packed the necessary items since their destination is only two days away from the academy if traveled on foot. The snake watched with interest as Louise prepared the saddle for the horse, usually the servants would do the task but since stealth is required it would be counterproductive to have people know about it.

„Louise, a question if I may?" the snake hissed

„Yes what is it?" she was not in a mood to talk right now, the saddle was proving trickier to strap on the horse then she assumed.

„Why are you saddling a horse?"

„You don't expect me to walk to the counts home, this way we will be much faster"

„...Didn't I teach you how to summon mounts?" he inquired

The question stopped her in her tracks. Slowly turning to look the snake in the eyes, she had to fight the urge to kill the thing.

„You can summon horses and you tell me now that I have done most of the work?!" she hissed

„...well not just horses, but yes. Hmmm...I was positive I gave you the scroll"

„Well, you didn't. Why don't you spare us both the trouble and get us to our destination" she demanded angrily.

„..ah very well...how ab..."

His words were interrupted when a large pillar of earth slammed in front of the stable entrance. Picking Aeron up Louise went to looked what happened outside. She was surprised to see a 20 ft tall golem punching the academy wall, on its left shoulder stood a hooded person, obviously the mage who created it.

„Great...just great, who ever the guy is, he just made the whole thing more complicated..." Aeron hissed in displeasure.

„We have to stop him!" Louise proclaimed, eager to prove she can help.

It took a minute for him to grasp what she wanted „...what? why?"

„Its expected of a noble!" _but I didn't learn any evocation spells...only illusion and enchantments...THAT'S IT!_

Rushing behind the unaware golem and its master she took a deep breath and started the chant „Sleep", and all of a sudden the hooded figure fell like a puppet with its strings severed. Only the crumbling of the golem saved him from falling and breaking his neck, instead slowly descending on the dirt of the golem.

_Well that was...boring..._ „Congratulations Louise, you just defeated...a triangle or square mage with only one spell"

Happy with the praise she completely forgot about her plan to leave the academy until she heard voices that were fast approaching, turning around she could see professor Colbert and other teachers rushing with their staffs.

Both Aeron and Louise sighted, _so much for that plan now_.

„Miss Vallière what happened here?"

„I-I'm not completely certain. I went for a short walk to clear my head and the next thing I saw was a tall golem attacking the academy walls. I didn't know who the attacker is but I felt its my responsibility as a noble to stop him, so I put the person controlling the golem to sleep with my magic" she explained to Colbert, while hoping she wont be caught in the lie.

„_Ummm very good, very good Luise. A wonderful bluff_" telling lies was one of the things that Aeron always supported.

Colbert's eyes went wide „Impressive. Most impressive, I must say you are turning in a formidable mage even for me putting a person to sleep is difficult, how did you manage such a spell?"

„I...I was experimenting with my magic and stumbled upon it...I still need more practice so it wont explode"

He nodded, remembering how her spells often failed. Turning to the sleeping figure now resting on the pile of earth he grabbed and pulled the hood away.

His eyes grow wide „Miss Longueville ?!" he gasped

„Colbert, whats this all about?" came Osmands voice who approached still in his night clothes.

„It seams Miss Vallière has apprehended a thief. If I may ask headmaster, how did you go about hiring her?" he pointed at the sleeping figure

"In a tavern. I was a customer while she was a waitress there. Where I slowly caressed her from her hands down to her buttocks…"

"Then what happened?" Mr. Colbert asked again.

Headmaster Osman embarrassingly confessed, "Because she wasn't angry at all after what I did, I asked her whether she wanted to become my secretary or not."

"Why?" The bewildered Mr. Colbert continued asking.

Osman started coughing. And said sedately, "And she could use magic, too."

"Yeah, magic that could kill." Mr. Colbert mumbled to himself.

Headmaster Osman coughed again then told Mr. Colbert in a prudent manner, "Come to think of it, the reason that allowed me to touch her all over the place, served me wine happily, and praised that I was handsome man, while I was in the tavern, was just to infiltrate the academy. All those praises were most probably just lies…"

"Yes. Beautiful women are deadly mages."

"I couldn't agree more with you, Colbert."

Louise and Aeron stared at the two mages _„Aeron is this normal behavior for men?"_

„_...in this world...possible, only two specimen's are not enough to form a valid opinion"_ he answered.

As the other faculty staff levitated away, Louise followed the dispersing crowed to the dormitories.

„_Well...this night was a fail"_ she commented

„_Yes...well maybe not entirely, you did impress a professor and defeated a strong mage"_ he reaaaally didn't want to describe any spellcaster of this world as strong but Louise needed a boost in confidence for accomplishments and not bull like name or position.

She smiled _„I guess your right"_ her face quickly turned serious _„so what now, have any ideas?"_

„_The plan stays the same if a bit modified, we will wait till Zanven returns so then I will explain in detail_".

She nodded and proceeded back to her room.

XXXX

**_T.A.M – _**_**Louise's room**_

They waited for two hours before Zanven returned to her room. Aeron remained in his snake form passing the time explaining to Louise the difference between her system of runes and his. In reality it was not so different, only here and there some rune had slightly different properties and carving style.

„Evening" the squirrel greeted them as he entered from the window.

„Ah Zanven, I have a task for you" Aeron said.

„You have my full attention"

„We will depart this institution within an hour, we already should have but unforeseen circumstances have made certain that we don't succeed. So I have a few ideas that need your help"

Zanven was certain now that Aeron was serious so he remained quiet.

„First I will need your help with Scrying the location of count Mott and his mansion, then I will teleport us there. Once we put him under our command, you will help me train her in domains I'm lacking like divination. I will leave behind a clone in the disguise of Louise to ensure she wont be missed by attending classes. We will probably change the plan later on, but for now its enough. Any questions?"

They both shook their heads.

Aeron frowned, he would be much happier if they asked even a dumb question...at least it would show they were thinking things over, he will have to punch some self initiative into the two „Very well then".

Quickly shifting his body into his assassin form he rummaged in his bag of holding until he pulled out a wand „Zone of Silence"

He placed the wand back in his bag „Now that's over with, I can turn you back to normal, I doubt the Zhents will look for you here".

The squirrel pumped his fist in victory „Finally! I will be my old self again!"

„Louise, I should probably warn you since you will probably panic if I don't explain things beforehand...even if it would be much more amusing" Aeron muttered the last part almost sadly

„What?" she asked, her interest piqued

„Zanven here as you know is not a real squirrel, I transmuted him into it because...I felt like it" he ended with a grin

„YOU SON OF A HARPY! I KNEW IT!" the squirrel dashed and grabbed Aeron by the throat, attempting to strangulate him, not that he would have much luck even in his humanoid form.

„Now, now Zanven it was not so bad...I had a ton of fun!"

Zanven looked him in the eyes „Have I told you how much I hate your guts?"

„Hmmmmm, now that you mention it...yes, yes you did"

The squirrel shook his head and leaps back on the floor, trying to reason with Aeron is like putting out a fire with flammable liquids.

„As I was saying, Zanven was not always so fuzzy, he was once an elf..." _wait for it, wait..._

Louise blinked

„WHHHAAAATTTTTTT!" her eyes were the size of plates

„By Banes rotting corpse, I think that was over 9000 Hz!" commented Aeron as he taped his ear to see if it was still functional.

Louise meanwhile found a defensive position under her blanket shivering in fear.

Moving closer to the trembling blanket, his first thought was to ram a spear in front of her face...but somehow that would be counter productive so he decided to simply talk to her..._how boring_.

„Louise I know that you people have some problems with elf's, but Zanven here is really a nice guy" he send a glance to the squirrel indicating him to take over the explaining.

„ I'm sorry for scaring you, but Aeron is indeed correct I really have no wish to harm you. I don't expect you to trust or even like me just like that, but I would be happy if you gave me at least the benefit of a doubt so I can prove that I'm not to be feared...who knows maybe you will be the first human in this world who can call an elf a friend" Zanven was siting on the bed, feeling truly sorry for scaring the child and a bit depressed that people would fear him simply for being an elf...he finally understood how Drizzd felt when he first came to the surface.

Aeron smirked, the only true bard skill in his opinion is their ability to talk with anybody about anything...then he grimaced, remembering that ability has no off switch, at least when Volotamp was the bard in question.

Slowly Louise peeked out of her improvised shelter to look at the small animal, it was hard to compare him to the image of the arrogant and powerful elf that parents told children to force them to behave. And now that she actually thought about it...can a elf really be worse than Aeron? He was insane, bloodthirsty, sadistic and powerful enough to even enslave elves...Zanven could not be worse than Aeron.

Removing the blanket and attempting to save some dignity she turned to Zanven „Y-yes I would not be appropriate if a noble didn't give you a chance to prove yourself"

„Soooo-you don't have any objections to changing him back?" Aeron inquired

She shook her head „No"

„Well Zanven seems this is your lucky day" with a snap of his fingers a white light enveloped the squirrel.

After the light dissipated, Zanven looked at Aeron...the Shadovar was still taller, but the difference in height was around 20cm not 180cm. He looked down on his hands...hands...not paws but actual hands...it was a long time since he saw them. Moving closer to the oversize mirror he could only smile when he saw his humanoid features...his golden hair, his delicate handsome face, his...breasts? Quickly examining the rest of his body he could only come to the conclusion that the bastard did it again.

„I'm going to kill you!" and with his feminine battle cry he jumped on Aeron to choke the shit out of him...and still failing to do any significant damage except amuse the corpse lover.

Louise was momentarily frightened when he attacked Aeron, but since her familiar only laughed at this she presumed it was safe „Zanven? I-I thought you were male!" In front of her stood a tall, busty woman with long blond hair and the most beautiful face she ever seen, even more than Aerons who certainly competed for the sexiest man alive award. Her clothing was also very beautiful, a harp was strapped over her back, decorated with images of golden leaves and vines, making the gold a nice contrast to the brown wood. On her hip an elegant rapier was hefted that like the harp had leaf decorations. She wore a red and gold colored leather armor that normally she would deem to gaudy, but had to agree fit the woman perfectly. All in all her clothing and weapons were a stark contrast to Aerons plain black ones.

„I am male! This bastard found it funny to perform a little sex change on me for his entertainment" he growled

Aeron scoffed „Now you are only letting your emotions run loose, in a humanoid body you can easily dispel the magic"

Zanven after cooling down, released his grip on Aerons throat, flexing his fingers he performed a „Greater dispel" dissipating any and all magic the necromancer placed on him.

To Louise the change was almost non existent, except the removal of the Kirche like breasts Zanven remained the same...he actually looked like a woman as well as a male.

Aeron smirked „Now I remember why elf birthrates were low, your woman thought they were courted by lesbians"

Zanven wanted to yell at him but a devious smirk emerged instead „Would you rather that we looked like dwarf's?"

The necromancer almost whimpered imagining a happy family where the wife had a long silky beard hanging to her knees „You win"

Happy that he got some payback he conjured a basin filed with water in the middle of the room „Louise can you describe me this lord Mott?"

Instead of describing the man she decided a visual would be easier „Silent image", in front of them stood an image of a middle aged human with brown hair, ridiculous mustache and clothes that would make jesters cry in shame. „This is Count Mott, he serves as the royal messenger of Tristain and is a triangle water mage. He is an arrogant fool, personally I don't know too much about him only some gossip...he has a reputation for abusing young girls as far as i learned from commoners and lower nobility."

The elf nodded „That should be enough, Greater scrying" in the water his reflection changed to that of Count Mott, siting behind his desk presumably in his study writing some documents, the scenery changed to that of a large mansion before reverting back to Mott „Will this be enough Aeron?"

The necromancer smiled „Indeed it will, my thanks Zanven. Now both of you prepare yourself I'm going to teleport us directly to Mott, Louise since this is your first teleportation be warned that you will suffer a slight daze until you get accustomed to it"

She nodded

„Teleport"

In a flash of white light the three disappeared.

* * *

**_Tristain – Count Mott's mansion_**

The three instantly appeared in front of the Count, While Louise and Mott were caught flat-footed Zanven and Aeron had no ill effects and acted fast.

Shaking of his surprise Mott lunged for his staff „WHO AR-„

Aeron waved with his hand „Enslave"

Motts eyes instantly glazed over, his body relaxed, and kneeled before the necromancer„What is thy biding master"

Both Zanven and Louise were speechless. Louise was amazed that a triangle mage could lose so easily, but then again she also defeated one.

Finding his voice Zanven looked at Aeron „That was the Enslave ritual?! B-but how can you cast it as a spell?! You didn't prepare no material components! No runes and bindings were placed! How!"

Aeron smirked „I never used material components Zanven, I thought you already figured that out since you saw me cast spells often".

The elf was shocked yes he did see him cast spells with nothing but a wave of his hand, but all those spells were pretty simple, this was a RITUAL, to be able to cast it as a spell you would have to be either a genius unmatched in the arcane arts or a God. _What the hell! If he is truly that powerful, why would he serve anybody? What is he after?_

„Count Mott, It's a pleasure to finally meet you. I'm sorry for our overly dramatic entrance but we are short on time. I hope we are not bothering you to much?"

„No bother at all my Lord, how can I be of assistance?"he said even as he struggled to break free of the spell, all in vain.

Zanven frowned „Aeron why the theatrics, he can't disobey your orders so there is no need to be so polite"

„My, my Zanven, I'm polite because it would be shameful of me to be rude. Friend or Foe, everybody deserves respect"

„...and then you kill them" Louise deadpanned

Aeron grinned and turned to his new puppet „Now Count, we are in need of your residence here and would be very pleased if you would donate all your belongings to Miss Vallière here, you will still remain the Royal messenger however and will work with us to further our goals"

„Yes My lord" he moved to his table to make the necessary documents.

„Now that's cleared up, I will do some changing of the interior so it better suits our needs, and then we will get right down to business Louise. As I explained earlier I will take up teaching you magical theory and additional skills like using daggers, and a myriad of other useful things to know, while Zanven here will teach you divination as well as magical theory"

Louise frowned „Why would I need to know how to use daggers I have magic"

Aeron chuckled „Louise do you know what is the biggest cause of death for mages?"

After thinking for a minute she shook hear head „I don't know...war maybe?"

He chuckled again „It is true that a lot of mages die in wars, but most mages statistically have died from daggers in their back or a slit throat. Before you summoned me I did the same thing to an elf mage, a poisoned dagger in the back and a clean cut through the neck. He failed to see it coming, so I will train you to not make such a fatal blunder to your health, and the first step to that is knowing your enemy. To catch a thief you need a thief so to say".

To say Louise was shocked would be an understatement, her familiar just admitted that he killed an elf mage with no effort at all by using a mundane piece of sharp metal. The only thing she could do was nod „W-what about the academy?"

„Ahhh yes, the academy," he opened his bag of holding and pulled out a small crystal, placing it on the floor next to it he added a flower from a near by vase. Turning to Louise he pulled a single strand of her hair.

„W-what are you doing?" she asked

Ignoring her question he began a spell „Mitosis puppet", from the crystal a tulip emerged and soon it reached Aerons height. All present stared as the flower opened up revealing a naked Louise standing with her eyes closed.

Zanven was the first to gather his wits „...eeee Aeron, care to explain?"

„Naturally, you see the spell _'_Mitosis puppet_'_ creates a clone of the creature whose genetic material it is given. The clone shares a telepathic link with the original and everything it learns its automatically learned by the original, and vice-verse. In essence it's not so much creating a new individual as a puppet who is controlled by the original subconsciously so no effort needs to be put in its behavior, and also no fear of it rebelling. The drawback is such clones have an abnormally high energy consumption and if they don't eat large quantities of food they wither.

To prevent themself from wilting they actually regress to their base nature and start consuming all living things around them, to negate that I put one Proteum crystal as its core to give the needed energy, so you don't have to give me that terrified look Zanven"

His smug face was soon replaced by sweat when he felt killing intend coming from behind him, he didn't have to be a genius to guess who it was.

„Y-YOU DOG!" she pulled her wand out and pointing it at Aeron she screamed „Fireball!"

Aeron was surprised she would cast one of her old spells since all they made were explosions, but the surprise faded fast as he was blown through the wall of the mansion until he hit a tree. _God, that will leave a bruise_. He coughed out smoke from the explosive magic. When he looked back to the hole in the wall he saw two pinkettes pointing wands in his direction „Fireball!" „Bleed!" before he was blasted again. Having calmed down somewhat LouiseA and LouiseB went to search for some spare clothing, while Zanven and Mott were wisely hidden behind his desk.

Aeron picked himself from the crater and dragged his scorched ass back to the building mumbling about rabid midget's along the way.

Mott had to convince the guards who rushed to protect their employer that nothing happened and that they should return back to their duties.

The five people...well four people and a plant, again gathered in the same room, where Aeron had to listen to a rather long rant about nobility-taboos-nudity-bad bla bla bla.

„Fine...no more Louise clones are you happy...now back to business, the clones purpose is to attend the academy instead of you. That way even if something relevant happens there you will know and be able to act upon it. Are there any objections?"

Nobody had any

„Very well, Teleport" and in a flash of light LouiseB was gone.

After a minute „I-I can see my room! Its like daydreaming but more realistic" she gasped

„Great now take a few hours rest to get familiar with having a part of your mind unfocused on here and now, and tomorrow we will begin your training"

Another nod from her and everybody went on to do their part of work.

After the document was signed Mott called his guards and servants to give them new assignments. In reality they were called to be put under a spell that forces them to ignore all unusual things they perceived.

The whole mansion was emptied of any and all valuables, anything worth selling was sold to raise additional starting capital. Even with the ability to create gold from dirt it would be unwise to flood the market...at least for now.

Aeron used magic to change the interior of the mansion resulting in the lose of a number of guest roomsthat that were replaced with a large laboratory with numerous crafting benches and a large summoning area. Louise was introduced to Valen the Djinni, who was more then happy to sell and buy any items from the little girl.

XXXX

Louise was almost certain her familiar is out to get her. After she woke up he dragged her out into the woods, placed a dagger in her hand and commanded her to attack him. First he only dodged her attacks, commenting what she needs to correct. It wasn't hard to master the weapon, the problem was the second she was able to use it with some skill he started to go on the offensive, she didn't know what he did to his hands but even the slightest of contacts with them caused her electric jolts. When she was exhausted with sparing, he would give her a potion of Restoration before they continued. In one day she was drilled in dagger use including throwing daggers, trap making, hiding and moving silently. But its the conversations that she remembered the most.

-Flashback-

She barely evaded two phantom daggers aimed at her back. They would not hurt her but they stung like hell. She heard a snapping branch from her left side „Cone of Cold" a flesh of light and all the vegetation was frozen solid.

„Tsk tsk Louise, you missed" Aerons voice mocked from above before a pair of daggers hit her in the arm.

Louise winced, they didn't hurt much but for someone not accustomed to pain it was bad. She rubbed her arm a she dashed behind a tree „Ow" she winced when she touched the spot.

„Hmmm now would probably be a good time to explain how to deal with pain. Listen, there are a lot of way to master pain, the easiest would be if you convince yourself that its all in your mind, that pain is only a illusion. The second way would be if you embrace it and enjoy it"

„Only you would enjoy something like this" she hissed

„I only gave you tips how to deal with it, its your choice if you take it or not"

She dodged another dagger „Protection from Arrows"

„Ohhh very good Louise, but how about this?" he laughed

She didn't want to give to sadist any ideas, she used the first thing she learned from him – NEVER remain stationary. So she zig-zaged around trees, using them as cover when ever she could. Her legs were tired but she had to persevere. Purely on reflex she dodged a bag of choking powder. She grimaced, those things were a serious problem for mages, its not so much that prevents speech but the coughing also disrupts any concentration.

„Is all this really necessary Aeron?" she asked

„Sweat saves blood my dear Louise. Look if I was a commoner assassin you would be dead over twenty times already, and I'm holding back"

„Does everything with you have to be about killing? Honestly one of these days you will get yourself in so much trouble not even Cyric will be able to save you" she commented breathing heavily.

„Hahahaha, your dead funny Master, Cyric would never save anyone, if you are not capable to help yourself then you don't deserve to live " he told her „Besides I thought you already made your peace with the idea of killing after Guiches noble demise?"

„I accepted that their deaths were not a great loss, but with your magic you could have forced them to change, to become better people"

„...Louise I'm not here to enslave peoples will simply because I don't like how they act. If they are ravaging murderous bastard's who go around killing and raping people I would not give a damn. As long as they don't stand in my way or have anything I need I wouldn't lift a finger. Its not my place to protect the weak, judge who is good or evil or enforce laws, that's the duty of your society, and if your governments fail to act why should I?"

She dodged another illusionary dagger, but a strong hand grabbed her arm and twisted until her wand fell to the ground. Louise instead of reaching for the magic tool grabbed the dagger she carried on her belt and slashed at her attacker who quickly let her go and retreated back into the bushes. She took the wand and dashed to find a better cover. Crouching behind a large rock she hoped to have a minute to rest, she could always use Stoneskin to protect herself from his attacks but it would be only temporarily and he would probably use those damned powders on her. If she had more time she could craft some sort of trap but she only had her dagger, wand and brain to work with...and her feet, yes she did a LOT of footwork today. An idea came to her mind. _I hope it works_. „You know Aeron sometimes I think you solve all your problems with the tip of your dagger, are you so cowardly that you would not give people a second chance?"

„Death solves all problems-no man no problem. I do not see why man should not be just as cruel as nature. The joy of killing! the joy of seeing killing done - these are traits of the human race at large. I do it, your parents do it, your princes will have to do it...and YOU will have to do it also, you call it cowardice I call it practicality" he finished his speech with a serious voice.

She frowned _Not yet_„Its a sin to take life"

„And who decides what sin is? I say do as you please. The only sin is to deny yourself what you are, to act as the people around you want. Never let others tell you what to do and how to behave, if you wish to have orgies on Tristain's main street well who am I to forbid it. Would you give up on your loved ones simply because the other nobles expect you to do that ?"

„...no" she answered, as she only half-heatedly listened to his words attempting to find his real location.

„And that's the whole point, be true to yourself even if it kills you. I am what I am, I never lie about it, I LOVE killing. Others call it evil but then again I don't give a damn. Evil is a point of view ... God kills, and so shall we; indiscriminately ... for no creatures under God are as we are, none so like Him as ourselves."

„Sometimes I have the feeling you give speeches to hear yourself talk. And since we are at the topic...you are quoting someone aren't you?"

„..."

„I knew it" she smirked as she pointed her wand in the air „Sunburst!"

The pained scream from a tree branch made her smile in victory, Aeron really hated the light at that moment.

-End flashback-

After that they went to the mansion for dinner and after a short rest she was dragged to the laboratory where she spend the rest of the day reading about magical theory and performing minor experiments. All things considering her first day was torture.

Zanven looked up from the book he was reading „So what do you think?"

Aeron taped his chin with his index finger before siting down on a couch „Her dexterity is excellent, not surprising when you take in account her built. But her constitution is average at best, she gets tired to fast. Its great I'm not making an expert assassin from her, so I don't have to direct so much time from her magic lessons to perfect her physical skills. Tomorrow you will show her some divination spells, and let her examine the items in the bag of holding, it will be easier if she sees the results and not only reads about them in a book".

„So what will you be doing tomorrow?" asked Zanven

„I will raise some zombies and summon some clockworkers to begin mining the mountains north from here, also I have to remodel Motts hunting 'cabin' into an academy for commoners and create one more _'_Mitosis puppet_'_ of myself to act the part of the local teacher".

„Sooo what will you be teaching them?" the elf asked suspiciously

He shrugged „Oh the basics. Reading, writing, mathematics, chemistry, physics, curriculum assassinorum"

Zanven facepalmed „I knew it".

„Related to our management topic, it seems that Mott was collecting to high taxes from the surrounding area under his control, I would appreciate it if you divine a good way to invest the money back to the villages. If this continues the peasants will go bankrupt and that's not productive, and have those house guards patrol the area, they are only in the way here"

„So what other skills will you teach Louise?"

Aeron smirked „The full set. Balancing, climbing, concentration, crafting, deciphering script, diplomacy, disable device, disguise, forgery, information gathering, sensing motives, spellcraft, survival, tumble, some skill tricks, some professions and a tone of knowledge. By the end of the year she will be able to leave the best spy masters this world has in the dust"

„You know, I could teach her the same skills, you could focus entirely on upgrading the economy"

„The economy is not hard to fix. Its more a pain because it takes time for the new ideas and projects to kick in, so I will have a lot of free time"

„Your choice. Oh and concerning Louise's magic, it seems she used the wrong element the whole time. Maybe if we found some of Brimirs personal items, she will figure out what to do"

„Sure, why not. This void magic cant be any weaker than the elemental rubbish they teach in the academy, so do you have any idea where to begin the search?"

„I think that at least one of Brimirs items is in possession of the Tristain Royal family".

„Ahhh yes the Royal family. It's a miracle that Germania and Galia haven't conquered the country with such weak rulers".

Zanven nodded returning his attention back to the book

Aeron rose and went to the laboratory „As long as I'm here, I can still do something productive. By the way, it seems the thief/secretary Louise caught was rather infamous – Fouquet the crumbling flirt or something, she couldn't stop boasting the entire day about how the Headmaster was praising her or rather her clone, so when she mentions it act surprised and awed, or she will try some of her explosive spells on you, and unlike me you don't regenerate" he ended with a smirk._Not to mention that the thief got blamed for the ghostly elf and the disappearance of three nobles_.

„Speaking from experience I see" Zanven commented as he turned a page

„Your just jealous she didn't use you as target practice" Aeron said as he left.

* * *

_**Tristain, Genoa prison**_

Fouquet was staring idly at the ceiling in the City of Tristain's Genoa prison. She was the triangle earth mage, who was apprehended trying to enter the academy vault to steal the Staff of Destruction. As she was infamous for stealing valuable treasure from various nobles, she was placed in Genoa prison, the maximum security prison located in the City of Tristain.

She would be charged in court the following week. As she has caused a great deal of shame to nobles all over the country, she would most probably either be exiled or be given the death sentence. Either way, she wouldn't be allowed in Tristain anymore. At first, she thought of escaping, but she later gave up that thought.

Inside her cell, there was nothing except for shoddy looking bed and a table that was made of wood. Things would be quite different if there was just something made of metal… Like a spoon.

Even though she wanted to turn the prison walls and iron bars into soil using alchemy, but without her wand, which was confiscated, that would not be possible. Magicians are really helpless without their wands. Furthermore, the prison walls and iron bars are specially enchanted to resist magic, so even with the use of alchemy, she would not be able to escape.

"It's really mean of them to lock up a feeble female like myself here." Fouquet grumbled to herself.

"Time to sleep..." Fouquet closed her eyes and laid down. Just as she had closed her eyes, she quickly opened them again.

A person wearing a hood appeared next to her cell, his face could not be seen as it was covered by a mask.

Fouquet said in a rather scornful manner, "I'm surprised to see a visitor in the middle of the night!"

The man in the mask did not reply, instead he simply looked at Fouquet.

Fouquet instinctively knew that the person was hired to kill her. Some of the nobles that she had stolen from must have thought that sentencing her in court was too much of a hassle and have decided to hire an assassin to kill her. Some of the items she had stolen from the imperial family were most probably stolen goods too, and in order not to let the truth surface, the imperials have decided to silence her.

"Well, as you can see, this doesn't look like a place to entertain someone. But I think you're not here just for a cup of tea too right?" Fouquet said.

She thought to herself, _Even though I'm without my wand, I will not give up easily without a good fight. I'm not only well versed in magic; I'm pretty good in close combat too. However, I'm powerless to stop him should he decide to use magic. Therefore, I must somehow lure him inside to my cell._

Just then, the man in the cloak spoke, "Are you Fouquet of the Crumbling Earth?"

His voice sounded strong and youthful.

"I'm not sure who gave me this nickname, but yes, I am Fouquet of the Crumbling Earth."

The man in the cloak raised both of his hands, showing that he is not hostile towards her.

"I have something of an offer if you would hear me out"

"What is it?" Fouquet replied in a rather surprised tone. "Don't tell me that you're going to speak on my defense. What a weirdo."

"I'd be happy to speak in defense for you, my dear Mathilda of South Gotha"

Fouquet's face turned pale. "That's the name I had forgotten, or rather forced to forget. There should be no one in this world that knows that name anymore…"

"Who exactly are you?"

The cloaked man did not answer her question and instead asked, "My identity will be revealed in time, but how things now stand, that little orphanage you protect so much will not last very long"

Fouquet, who had lost her cool replied, "I-i don't know what you're talking about, speak clearly or leave"

„Now, now my dear there really is no need to behave like that. I simply came here to propose a deal, we will give you the financial backing you need to help dear sweet Tiffania, and your freedom in exchange for helping our little group" The man replied

The mention of Tifa made her be instantly on guard, was it worth the risk to decline him? She thought the proposal over „How do I know I can trust you?"

„You cannot. But it's not like you have much of a choice"

Closing her eyes she gave a stiff nod

„Excellent, now let us depart"

* * *

_**Tristain, HQ formerly Motts mansion**_

Aeron was in the kitchen preparing their meals when he spotted a carriage entering the court yard. _Its to soon for Mott to return, it seems we have unannounced visitors_. Discarding his black apron with a yellow smiley and a „Kill the chef" sign he went to great them. He was surprised when from the carriage a familiar face stepped forth.

She bowed „Good day, my name is Siesta I was hired as a new maid for Count Mott" after taking a better look of him she started drooling..._Creepy _he thought. From probing her mind, he came to some interesting insight's. She was envious of mages, a hard worker, loyal, a good person...and a pervert...well if you ignore the last character trait, he actually found what he was searching for.

„Aaa miss Siesta, I'm sorry to say that Count Mott has sold his land to my master and so has no authority here anymore. But if you wish we would gladly hire you, we don't need a another maid, but we could use someone to take the position of Housekeeper if your interested?"

Her eyes grow wide „H-housekeeper?! But I'm only a maid, I don't know if I can take on such responsibility. Wouldn't someone older be better suited"

He laughed „You can always learn as you work, if I take someone younger he or she will fill the position longer then someone who we have to replace after he strains his hip". He pulled a scroll he summoned behind his back and handed it to her „This would be your contract if you accept"

After reading the document she gaped at the sum she would be paid for her services „T-this is five times as much as I earn as a maid!"

He waited patiently as she snapped out of her daze and wrote her name on the paper.

„Excellent!" he grinned „you, take her luggage up to the Housekeepers room" he commanded to a stable boy before he turned to the carriage driver. Since the man was one of Motts servants, he will have to be dealt with as soon as Siest is out of sight.

XXXX

Siesta found her new quarters excellent. The only thing she was worried about was that the room next to hers belonged to the new lord of the land. That also meant that her village also now belonged to him. She hoped he was not a bad noble, the taxes were high as they could afford with their small vineyard.

(Knock-Knock)

„Yes, come in" she turned around to the door.

The hunk that greeted her when she arrived stepped in to the room

„I'm sorry to be a bother, but could you help me in the kitchen, I could really use a hand and everybody else is already busy" he lied.

„Oh, certainly mister..." she remembered that she never asked for his name...or the name of their master either.

He bowed „My name is Aeron, a pleasure to make your acquaintance miss Siesta, shall we?"

„Yes" she followed him to the kitchen.

The kitchen was clean and well equipped Siesta observed, the thing that surprised her the most was that Aeron alone was making a large number of dishes that she found unfamiliar.

„Pardon me, but what should I do?"

He smiled warmly „Do you know how to prepare tea?"

She nodded „What flavor?"

He taped his index finger on his chin „Hmmm, what would you recommend to serve with sweet dishes?"

Happy her opinion mattered she thought quickly „W-well usually with honey black or jasmine tea would compliment it nicely, preferably jasmine tea"

He smiled again „Excellent suggestion Siesta, would you make some please?"

She nodded „Where is the tea-ware?"

Aeron pointed to a nearby cabinet.

After finishing the tea she helped him prepare dough for the croissants. She found Aeron very amusing, not only is he a great listener, he always has some funny story to tell, being eye candy helped also.

„You know Aeron, if the head chef from the academy was here he would eat his hat from envy" she giggled

„Ohhh, I don't know about that, I had the pleasure to observe Marteau's skills and they are nothing but first class, my only advantage is that in my travels I picked up a lot of recipes".

„Never the less the master is lucky he found such a good servant"

He had to suppress his laughter _good servant indeed_

„Now that I think about it, I never learned masters name"

„Ahh, that would be Miss Vallière "

„You mean the Vallière family bought these lands?!" it was quit a shock, the dutches was already the most powerful noble in Tristain, gaining Motts land will only anger the other noble families. Bur she was also relieved, the Vallières also had the reputation of being harsh, but just lords.

„Actually their youngest daughter bought it, her family had nothing to do with it"

Siesta was shocked „Louise?!"

„Indeed" he smiled

She laughed sadly „A girl my age and already grasping the future in her hands, mages really are something special"

He snorted „Don't sell yourself short, the world does not revolve around magic. I can tell by a glance that you are a good hardworking person, I wold not be surprised if you came here expecting the worst from Mott but were ready to sacrifice yourself for the good of your family"_ not to mention stupid._

„H-how did you know that!" she looked surprised

„I'm a pretty good judge of character" _and a master mind reader_

She smiled and bowed „Thank you, I-I really feared the worst when I came here. Your words mean a lot to me. I just wished that mages don't treat us like dirt, can you believe the things they get away with" she proclaimed angrily.

„I can guess that they allow themself's a lot of freedom"

She nodded sadly „Before I left we got a new maid in the academy, her name was Lorelei, she went with some nobles and then disappeared, the nobles are probably covering it up to preserve their honor" she spat „Brimir knows what they done to her" tears forming in her eyes.

Aeron nodded „Ja, that sound like something nobles would do"

„I-im afraid that the same could happen to me, to my family. We are only peasants the ones with power don't protect us and we don't have strength to do it ourself's" she was openly crying now.

„Would it help if you had magic?" he asked innocently

„..ors i-it would help, at l-least it c-couldn't h-hurt" she sobbed

„So do you want me to teach you magic?" a melodically feminine voice asked.

She looked up to him with teary eyes her face betraying shock „L-Lorelei? Wha- wher.."

The white haired maid only giggled „My, Siesta and here I thought you would be happy to see me safe"

„H-how, where's Aeron?"

The maid spoke this time with Aerons voice „I'm here, where else would I be?"

Her face went pale „What is going on here, who-what are you?!" she fell on her behind and crawled away into a corner.

„I'm Aeron, I'm Lorelei, I'm Thanatos, I'm Boris, I'm John Smith and many more. What I'm not is your enemy, in fact I can help you" she smiled „you wish to gain power, to have the strength to protect yourself and those you love from harm, I can give you that power" she grinned.

„Y-your a d-demon!" she was panicking, she knew that, but she could not move, her muscles refused to obey her.

„No, not really. I'm only offering an opportunity of a life time, an opportunity offered only once, I can teach you magic, It wont cost you anything. Accept or refuse, its your choice. If you do accept I will be in the laboratory, you can seek me out there" and with a flash of light she/he was gone leaving a shocked Siesta.

XXXX

_**HQ-lab**_

Aeron was making notes when he felt a presence enter the lab. He smiled but didn't react in any way to alert the person that he already knew. A few hours passed since he left her in the kitchen to think things through.

„You said you can turn me into a mage?" she asked rather sternly

„Indeed I can, if you wish to become a mage"

„Why would you do this for me?"

„I had a bet with my foolish master, she was certain commoners cant use magic, and I wish to prove her wrong, simple as that. But enough about that, you came here for magic and I wasted enough time. Normally learning magic if you are not born with it takes decades to master. But I will give you a shortcut".

„What shortcut?" she asked

„You are going to make a pact with a demon" he answered simply

„...your joking..."

„I'm undead serious"

„I would rather keep my soul thank you" she murmured

„Don't worry, yes the usual pay is the contractors soul, but its not the only way. In short I will pay your price. You will become a warlock and the demon will have my services in...six battles of his own choosing, is that acceptable?"

„..Why would you go to such lengths for a simple bet?" she asked seriously.

He taped his finger on his chin „Chaos"

„What?"

„I love breaking order, and traditions, by turning you into a mage I give a rather big finger to the sorcerers of this land"

„That can't be your only reason, there must be something you gain!" she persisted.

„But it is!" he chirped happily.

After a minute she nodded in agreement „Please proceed"

It took half an hour till he prepared the summoning circle and the binding runes in the lab. A lengthy summoning ritual and the result was instantaneous.

A burst of fire from which a huge demon rose was enough to shake up the soon to be warlock out of her sleepiness. The demon was huge, he had a human torso with great leathery wings on his back, in its hand he carried a blade longer then any human. Its hideous face looked down until he saw Aeron and the demon...facepalmed?

„I can't believe it" the balor shook his head.

„Yo Winny how you doing!" Aeron proclaimed happily.

„Drop dead" the balor growled.

„Winny, I'm hurt I thought we were friends" he made a sad face.

„I'm no friend of yours cyricist" the demon hissed, searching over the runes to spot a flaw in them.

Aeron started to cry mock tears „And I thought you loved me, you cheater. Don't you remember that day we met on the beach? The passion we shared?"

Siesta went red in an instant, while the balor rolled his eyes.

Soon the sobs and tears were turned into laughter with Aeron clutching his belly.

„I-I'm sorry I couldn't resist" he said through laughter.

„S-so that was a joke?" asked Siesta

The balor snorted „He wouldn't know a joke if it impaled him on a 20 foot halberd"

Aeron grinned „Remembering our first night together?"

„Pike off! I'm tired of your stupidity jester, what is the reason you called me for?"

„I wanted to talk about the good old times?" he grinned wider

„Which one? When you summon me into Celestia and cast a Dimensional anchor on me? Or, how about that quest you had to infiltrate that noble house in Cormyr? No wait, I know, how about the time you imprisoned me in the body of a cat for a decade, which one do you want to talk about?" the demon growled

Siesta had a feeling the meeting was not going very well.

„I think my favorite was when we fought Elminster in Shadow Dale, we certainly send him packing" Aeron remembered fondly.

„Sure you do, probably because it never happened! Now I will ask you only once more – What-do-you-want!" The balor was burning up (literally) from frustration.

Satisfied with the number of laughs he got out of the fiend Aeron decided to go down to bussines „Well, you see this lovely girl here would like to make a pact with you to become a warlock"

The balor snorted „And is she prepared to pay the price?"

The necromancer shook his head „Actually I will be paying the price"

The demon stared at him „Hell, to torment your soul for all eternity I would give her divinity!"

Aeron chuckled „Not my soul Winny" the balor scowled, knowing the cyricist was not that foolish „In exchange for the power I would bind myself to fight for you six times"

The demon was thinking it over, for all his stupid behavior Aeron Blackheart was as powerful as any balor if not more.

„I have two additional conditions"

„Lets hear them"

„First you will address me with my title Lord Winzeraxary, second you will never EVER again summon me" The balor roared.

„Deal!" Aeron proclaimed happily.

With that the balor made the ritual pact with Siesta allowing her usage of his infernal powers.

„You will not regret this Lord Winzeraxary!" he grinned.

The balor hissed „I already do, now send me back"

With a nod and a dismissal, the demon returned to Hell in a burst of fire.

Aeron turned to the new addition to Halkegenia.

Siesta marveled at the power and knowledge she received from the pact.

„So how does it feel?"

„Its amazing!" she pointed out her fingers and a ray of pure arcane energy struck and drilled a hole in a nearby wall.

Aeron chuckled „Yes I can imagine"

Siesta nodded her head „What did he mean by cyricist?"

„Oh that, I'm a follower of the Mad God Cyric, the demons are a little mad at poor little us cyricists since the Spellplague"

„The Spellplague?"

„A cataclysm made by Cyric after he killed Mystra the Goddess of Magic".

„Then why would you worship him? Are you not a mage?" asked Siesta

„Its simple, from all the Gods he is the only one I respect, and he gives the most freedom. I can do what ever I want be it killing or saving people and he will not object"

Siesta was looking over to the spot where the balor was standing „..a Mad God...well it could have been worse, a God of Nobility, that would be a nightmare"

He snorted „ Got that right. Siamorphe, the demigod of nobility makes anybody want to vomit."

„I'm sorry that you wont be able to call the demon back" Siesta spoke

„Oh don't worry, I promised I wont summon him, that doesn't mean I can't have someone else summon him for me" he snickered and the warlock sweatdroped.

„Well its late already, shall we go introduce you to our little master?"

She nodded and followed him to the dinning area

XXXX

_**HQ-Louise's room**_

Louise lost the better part of the day examining all the magic items Aeron had collected, and after reading the books on magic theory finally understood what Aeron meant with wizard and sorcerer difference...wizards were commoners...who learned magic. She remembered that bet she had with him and had a really bad feeling in her gut. But she still had time to think, to learn magic the wizard way takes years and even century old wizards were still learning and discovering new things. As a sorceress she can copy and cast spells but that's about it, even with Aeron and Zanven teaching her, even with her experience with magic and willpower she is nothing more than a wizard apprentice in understanding magic.

She sighted and concentrated back on the scryng pool, Zanven had explained divination in detail. She was intrigued why Aeron would discard such a useful art, it's not like he had to specialize in one magic school.

Zanven looked out of the window, it was already dark outside „Louise, it time we finish up here, you did great, not unexpected you are a bright girl" he had no illusion that with her rather large willpower and the new spells she could easily defeat him. The curious thing was that she has some tendency for destructive spells, every spell came out maximized without her knowing it. Not to mention she actually learned more spells before reaching her limit then any other sorcerer could. All in all she was a powerhouse.

„In a minute, I wish to see Cattleya before we go downstairs, Scrying" in the water the red and sweating face of her sister appeared. „Cattleya!" she cried.

„What is it Louise!" he asked worriedly

„Its Cattleya it seems she has a fever again!" she sobbed

„Let me see" and indeed she was on the bed red faced, sweating and moaning.

„Zanven we have to help her! Can you transport us there now?" she asked

The elf nodded „just give me a minu..." before he could finish the sentence, through the scyring pool they saw Cattleya push down the bed sheets that covered her, revealing her hands between her legs, her panties around her ankles. Every time her fingers moved more moans followed. _She seems actually healthy to me._ He thought.

Louise did the only thing she could...she screamed, threw the scrying pool at Zanven who caught it with his face and collapsed unconscious while the red faced girl started foaming from her mouth before running out to throw some fireballs at Aeron.

XXXX

_**HQ-corridor**_

Louise wanted to forget, she desperately wanted to forget, the last thing she wanted to do was to see her sisters unnoble side. So when she saw Aeron carrying a teapot she rushed in and jump kicked him in the back of his head sending him face first into the floor. Since she was still not satisfied she took the opportunity to stomp on him some more.

„M-Miss Vallièrer, what are you doing!" Siesta gasped

„Zanven! Pool! Sister! Garghhhh!"

„I-i don't understand"

Aeron managed to pull his face from the flore „Louise, if you don't like jasmine tea you don't have to beat me up over it" but as soon as he finished his sentence another kick to the head made him kiss the flore again.

„S-Shut up! I just had the shock of my life and you think about tea!" she screamed

„W-what happened?" Siesta asked

„She saw her sister pleasure herself" came a melodious voice from behind them

Siesta could not believe it, a man even more handsome than Aeron...and she was in the same house as them...she could already imagine some of the chapters of her favorite books.

Louise, Zanven and even Aeron who managed to crawl away under Louise backed away from the drooling maid with the far away look.

„If she comes this way...run" Aeron whispered to the two who nodded

Luckily Siesta snapped out of it and accompanied the rest to the parlor, where they enjoyed some snacks and tea while discussing matters of great importance.

„Certainly NOT!" shouted Zanven

„Bah! What would an elf know of such things!" scoffed Aeron

„I think your both wrong" mentioned Siesta thoughtfully

Louise could only gritte her teeth in frustration at her company, she hoped for too much from them if she thought they would provide some advice „Enough! I did not ask you lot on your opinions on my sisters panties!" she yelled.

Aeron crossed his arms „pink panties...just the color makes me want to gag" he murmured

Zanven shot him a glare „Whats wrong with pink! It's a wonderfully cheerful color, I bet they even have the scent of flowers"

„...more like fish..." the necromancer growled

Louise shot him a killer look „ . !"

„I think she would probably look good in black laced underwear" interjected Siesta as she started drooling...again.

Louise buried her face in her knees, there was no reasoning with them

„Personally I don't know whats the big deal Louise. Your sister has needs as any normal person, masturbating is as normal as eating, I'm guessing that she's even desperate for intimate human contact that she can't get because your parents would castrate any man who even looks at her the wrong way" Aeron commented.

„Naturally they would! There is nobody whose worthy enough to be with sis!"

„Soooo you would rather she remains innocent and unhappy?" asked the elf

„I always knew you nobles are closet perverts, it's all because you have the need to hide your true desires and lead such stressful lives. Masturbation is a great stress reliever you know" chirped Siesta happily

Louise shot her a dirty look „And who are you again?"

„This is Siesta, she is the newest part of our little happy family. She will take over the position of housekeeper, not to mention a commoner who thanks to me can now use magic" Aeron finished with a smirk

Louise blinked, she remembered the maid from the academy, and she worked there as a commoner for at least a year „but-but that's impossible!"

Siesta smirked and let her hands be engulfed with flames that quickly shot fort to incinerated a chair leaving only dust on the blackened marble floor. She knew that Aeron wont give a damn for the furniture.

„Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools." smirked Aeron.

Louise hung her head in defeat „Very well you win the bet, what do you want"

Aeron laughed „I already got what I want" he pulled a copy of the contract and tossed it to Louise. She picked it up and with every sentence read she paled a bit more until she resembled the paper she was holding „M-my soul"

Zanven looked at him aghast „A magic contract?!"

„Yup" he proclaimed proudly

The paper fell from her shaking hands, she learned about magic contracts in one of Aerons books „S-so its over, I gave away my soul on a stupid bet"

„Well, I did try to warn you to read the bloody thing first" he commented seriously

„What made you use it now? You never resorted to this before" Zanven asked obviously not happy with what Aeron did

„Its something of a punishment. I dislike stupidity, not taking into account that commoners can use magic, ridiculing my abilities to teach magic, not being bothered to read a bloody piece of paper because its to long. Louise when people rub me the wrong way things like this happen"

She looked down on the flore dejectedly „So what now, I'm already finished if this contract is correct"

„It is true that I have your soul, but that does not mean I can't give it back to you" he smiled

She eyed him warily but with hope „What do I have to do?"

„I meddled too much in your life as it is, so I will step back to watch from the sidelines. You have allies in Zanven and Siesta here so you don't have to do everything alone. If I judge that you have grown in wisdom as well as power, then I will return your soul no strings attached. If on the other hand you die or remain passive and don't do anything relevant with your power your soul will remain in my possession. Personally I will only make you an army since you are not a necromancer" he answered in all seriousness.

Silence dragged on since Aeron finished his speech.

Zanven and Siesta thought the same thing _ONLY an army?_

Louise rose up from her couch and went to leave „I'm going to bed" but as soon as she opened the door she did something unsuspected, she laughed „I promise you Aeron, in the future everybody will know my name, and when I'm at my strongest I will kick your ass and take my soul back" with that she left the room.

Aeron had a positively big cheshire smile on his face „I will be waiting Louise Françoise le Blanc de La Vallière" _and the breaking game continues_ with that he melted into his own shadow leaving a surprised Siesta and a facepalming Zanven behind.

„M-more tea Mister Zanven?" she asked after gathering her wits.

After thinking for a minute he came to a decision „Got anything stronger?"

* * *

_**HQ-Louise's room**_

This was probably the worst day of her life, but what surprised her was that she didn't despair. Yes, the bastard has her soul in his hand, but she also has the means to take it back. She had a purpose in life beyond gaining attention and respect of the people around her, she will gain her soul back and beat the life out of that manipulative bastard. With that thought she went to bed, but as hard as she tried sleep eluded her. Slowly her hand edged lower, and lower until they reached a sensitive spot, imagining Cattleya she started slowly to move her fingers touching the sensitive area. Feeling her panties starting to get moist she quickly removed them. Lying on her belly she let her fingers slide deeper into her, rubbing her insides she started to pant and moan. Every touch made her body twitch, every twitch made her mind go a little more blank, letting the bed soak in all the fluids that gushed out of her. So focused was she on her pleasure that she never saw the room doors opening and closing behind her back.

XXXX

Siesta was felling a little red in her face as she carried a half full bottle of wine to her room, this was the best day of her life. Not only did she become now a mage, but she will be able to help her family even more since she will be responsible for supervising her village. She was so focused on her dreams of the better future that she entered the wrong room. The first thing that alerted her that she wasn't suppose to be here were the moans and the smell of sweat, it didn't take long even half drunk as she was to guess whose room this was. But instead of her better judgement to leave quietly and forget the small naked form illuminated by moonlight, she rather approached it with a devious smirk on her face, as she unbuttoned her blouse.

XXXX

It took Louise almost a minute to register that there was a pair of hand not her own touching her behind and private parts. She wanted to jump away from her molester but a well timed finger stroke took all her strength away.

„My Louise what beautiful skin you have" Siesta purred.

Siestas fingers skillfully found every sensitive spot and with each touch her strength drained a little bit more.

Louise rolled on her back, with Siesta closing in. She felt as the maid pressed her lips on hers, then she kissed her neck and slowly she went to lick and nibble at her nipples, only to change her position into that of the number 69.

They both used their tongues and fingers on the other for hours

„S-Siesta I-I-„ Louise lost consciousness when she shot out a burst of fluids ower the room.

Siesta smiled, it felt good even if she didn't come, _ohhh well there will still be time_. With that she embraced Louise until she too fell asleep.

* * *

_**HQ-Louise's room**_

Louise woke up from the most bizarre but exciting dream she ever had, it was morning, birds were singing, Siesta was fondling her breasts...normally she would be screaming her lungs out but she was first to tired to do that, second she didn't want the others to see this, third...it felt good.

„If you mention this to anybody I will turn you into a toad"

Siesta ignored her threat „Do you know Louise, if you massage your breasts they will grow bigger"

„R-really!" she looked at her flat chest, it was a polar opposite from Cattleyas...or even Siestas, looking at the pair of udders the maid had she became jealous, she grabbed them and kneaded not believing how soft...or big they were.

Siesta not wanting to disappoint found Louise's nipples with her fingers and started to play with them „T-to bad you are not a boy, you would be a-a-a- pe-perfect" she moaned.

Siestas words sparked a thought in her, she quickly crawled out of the bed to her table where Aerons bag of holding was still placed.

Siesta was a little disappointed Louise didn't want some more morning workout, but still enjoyed watching her cute behind as she bend over...now wishing that she was a boy.

She saw Louise pull a ring and as soon she put it on her finger...not much changed...except now Louise had a „L-Louis is that a cock?!"

Louise smiled showing her hand with the ring „This is a ring if reverse gender, now Siesta...how about some payback..." she smiled wickedly

XXXX

_**T.A.M – Louise's room**_

LouiseB was irritated, her original was doing indecent things, and even worse enjoying herself while she was stuck in this boring academy. Luckily she just finished a two way portal to Motts, or rather her mansion, it's not like anybody will miss her for a few hours. At least with Aeron or Zanven she could hold a decent conversation about any topic, her fellow students and teachers would at best laugh at her comments or at worst directly insult her knowledge as a mage...well it wasn't their fault they didn't know anything about the arcane arts, but it still irritated her. Now she finally understood what Aeron meant about narrow minded people. The portal was placed inside her wardrobe, its not like she needed any furniture now that she could change her clothes at will. She entered the wardrobe and the portal leaving the academy behind.

She never noticed the big blue dragon watching her through the window.

XXXX

_**T.A.M – Tabitha'**_**s **_**room**_

„So Tabitha did you find anything?" The red haired Germanian asked.

Tabitha using the special bond between familiar and mage was looking or rather spying through Sylphids sharp eyes on the Zero of the magic academy that for some reason was actually able to cast magic, not only that but the students and teachers have seen a slight change in attitude of late. Louise was more rebellious against authority and didn't react so negative to Kirche, that alone send alarm bells into the busty Germanian. Naturally when Kirche needs something done she will first go to her friend Tabitha for advice, and since it was part of Tabithas mission to spy on Louise she found in Kirche the perfect justification for that.

„Magic portal" she whispered.

„Portal? I wonder where it could lead? What do you think?"

„Unknown"

„Well than we better find out" Kirche proclaimed proudly, not that she had anything against Louise (except being a brat) but this mystery was to interesting to ignore.

Tabitha ended the spell, and went for the door, it wasn't a long walk from her room to their targets room, with a quick spell the door opened and they entered. The room looked quite normal, except for the large number of books on the table. They were all written in a language she could not read, leaving the mystery books behind she approached the wardrobe. Opening the doors they could see the portal, it looked like the surface of a river, you could see the corridor on the other side, but also your own wage reflection in the watery surface that made the portals entrance.

Tabitha stepped through the portal and emerged on the other side, she noted that the water wasn't wet, soon behind her came Kirche. The corridors were empty, but they were able to see that there were pictures on the walls until recently. After fifteen minutes of searching they heard voices coming from up font, they could easily identify that of Louise, the other voice was a beautiful male voice. Instead of risking exposure they opted to explore more of the mansion. Taking the stares to the next floor they turned left. Most rooms they peeked into were empty, until Kirche sniffed the air and a grin split her face „I smell sex!" and with haste she dragged Tabitha to a closed door. Being extra careful Kirche slowly opened the door to take a peek.

What she saw made her eyes bulge and jaw to drop.

Louise was kneeling naked, panting as her hips trusted in a black haired girls large rear, Kirche had to admit she was left speechless seeing the little prude doing another woman in a doggy-style position. Not wanting to skip this opportunity she swung the door open „Louise! What are you doing!" she asked.

XXXX

_**HQ – Louise's room**_

Louise had to admit she didn't want to stop, the maids large rear sucked her in no matter what. She smirked „My Siesta what a big ass you have" slapping her palm on her butt making the maid yelp.

Her moment was brought to an abrupt halt when she heard an irritatingly familiar voice, her head shot up to the door that now was wide open revealing the bane of her existence.

With a red face and a still stiff member she disconnected from Siesta jumping away from the bed „H-ho-WHY ARE YOU HERE!" she screamed

Kirche on the other hand was also shocked when she saw Louise „L-Louise your a boy?! But that's impossible I saw you in the baths, you were a girl!"

„I am a girl!" she pulled of the ring from her finger reverting to her original gender „this is a ring that reverses gender Zerbst!" she hissed

Neither Tabitha nor Kirche ever heard of such magic, they approached and Kirche took the ring from her finger examining it „This looks like a plain old silver ring to me" she stated, and then putt the ring on her finger.

Kirches form suddenly shifted, her breasts disappeared and she experienced horrible pain in her nether region until a snap made her panties fall to the ground, its string broken. From under her skirt a long meaty appendage could be seen hanging limply between her legs.

The four girls...well three and a red haired man looked stupefied. Kirche removed her now baggy shirt and useless bra reveling a tan, nicely muscled male body. But what really made Louise stare and fume was the appendage that was more fitting on a horse then on any human...it seems she was destined to be outdone by Kirche either male or female.

Kirche on the other hand had a sparkle in her eyes, her first thought was if she can do herself with it. Grabbing the cock with her hands she started to slowly stroke it until it slowly sucked all her blood from her brain leaving a drooling redhead behind.

And she was not the only one, both Louise and Siesta were watching every stroke, slightly drooling, juices sliding down their tights.

Kirche grinned seeing the desire in them she grabbed Tabitha and Louise and pushed them on the bed. Only a short eye contact was needed between Siesta and her to come to an understanding. Siesta removed Tabithas staff and clothes while Kirche pounced on Louise. The ring will change a lot of hands this day.

XXXX

_**HQ – lounge**_

LouiseB was enjoying her discussion with Zanven about wand creation when the memories of her original reached her.

Seeing her shocked expression Zanven wondered what happened „Louise are you all right? You look a little pale?" he commented

She only shook her head before slamming it full force on the coffee table, letting her fall into blissful unconsciousness and if she's lucky forgetting the indecency that is transpiring near them.

XXXX

_**HQ – lab**_

Aeron grinned at the shaadee he summoned „Greatings Zarken, hows unlife been treating you?"

The undead had the appearance of a rotting humanoid with long clawed hands garbed into tethered remains that barely could be called clothing „What is thy biding my Lord?"

„Ahhh yes I have forgotten how boring you were when alive, seems nothing changed with your demise." Aeron said, but seeing how Zarken will not grace him with any interesting responses he decided to get down to business " You see I found a rare talent that I wish to recruit. You will join a certain sorceress as a general and help her create and lead an army of undead, you don't have to worry about corpses, I already found agents who will send them here, or rather in the mines that are being created in the northern mountains. We don't really need to many skeletons or zombies, concentrate more on ghouls, wights, shadows and bodaks. I will send a nighthaunt as a general to a secondary army so don't be surprised if you detect unfamiliar undead forces".

„Wont the local clergy be suspicious if we suddenly start emptying graveyards?" it asked

„No, not really they have no connection with any God, and most don't really care what happens outside their churches and donation boxes. If any start to snoop around we will bribe or dispose of them" he said seriously "now get going, you will find the mines easy, its the one with the zombies" he laughed

„Yes my lord" the shaadee said before fading from sight.

„Now to give Louise some more agility training and a present" he chirped happily as he picked up a black leather bundle.

As soon as he left the lab he saw Zanven holding an unconscious Louise on his back „What happened to her?"

„I have no idea, she simply slammed her head in the table as hard as she could, and this is the result, I'm bringing her up so she can rest in a bed until she wakes"

_Maybe LouiseB did something? That would explain it_ thought Aeron _to bad and I really wanted to give her these items_ „Cant be helped, lets bring her up then"

„Why are you talking in plural? If I'm not mistaking I'm carrying her"

Aeron waved him off while grinning „I know without me simply being here you are helpless"

Zanven scoffed „I will pray to Silvanus that you grow up already, the Gods know the world can't survive your humor for much longer"

They traded insults until reaching the pinkette's room, as soon Aeron opened the door he was greeted by the smell of sweat, anger and shame. It burned his lunges, so much that he jumped through the window only to land face first in the earth.

Zanven didn't react so much expect grimace as the smell reached his nose. On the bed he could see a man with red hair penetrating the maid,...and Louise...having sex with a blue haired child that he sometimes saw in the academy library..._Ohhhhh now I understand why LouiseB turned unstable_.

The four looked at him, and to his horror the maid and the red haired man licked their lips. _Shit!_ He rushed the same window Aeron broke before and with a jump, Louise still on his back crashed on Aerons back who just now stood up, only to be slammed face first in the dirt again.

Pulling his muddy face from the dirt a second time he look over his shoulder at Zanven „I know I can't stand the stench but why did you jump?"

The elf shuddered remembering the expression the red haired man made when he saw him „Better not to ask if it's all right with you, I think I will have my reveries behind locked doors in the future"

XXXX

The two dragged themselves to the mansion lounge where Zanven put LouiseB on a couch, and conjuring up a bottle of Elven wine to get his thoughts and more importantly his nerves back on track.

Aeron on the other hand conjured up a book and...crayons...

"I always knew you have some mental problems, now its official, you have the mental state of an eight year old"

The necromancer pouted „I have not, look look I draw this" he presented two stick figures fighting each other.

„..." _rather not comment_

If they thought Louise and her...friends will be done fast, they were mistaken, the sun already set when four women came down. They had at least showered before, and Zanven was relieved that the red haired man was not here_...or was the woman a shapeshifter?_

Aeron looked at the new arrivals „Ahhh Louise nice of you to join us, tomorrow you will do extra agility training" was all he said before he returned back to his...lets just say art.

Zanven nodded to them „Louise, Siesta...who are you friends? I wasn't aware we would be receiving visitors"

The pinkette blushed „T-This is Kirche Frederica von Anhalt Zerbst, and this" indicating at the small blushing blunette „is Charlotte Helena Orléans De Gallia but we call her Tabitha"

Zanven observed that Louise and Charlotte were casting glances at each other and fidgeting, but he was more concerned with Siesta and this Kirche woman...they had the eyes of a predator and for some reason he felt that he was the prey.

Kirche licked her lips and winked, only to cause shivers to run down his spine. It's not that he is against becoming intimate with woman...but as an elf he could never understand how humans can be attracted to anybody without knowing them. He knew that elven courting or friendships could last centuries before they developed into actual relationships. The way humans did things...was to much like the orcs...a bare minimum of emotions and large quantities of testosterone.

Kirche glanced at Aeron who was still busy with his book...but feeling her gaze linger on him he had to suppressed a shudder. Not that she wasn't attractive, in fact she was the most attractive woman he saw in this world until now...but he simply wasn't interested, being asexual made seduction attempt's rather disturbing rather than flattering.

„W-well its a pleasure. I'm Zanven Silverleaf a bard by trade and this is-„

„Greetings my name is Ronald McDonald, I'm a farmer from down southnorth from here" he waved.

The elf raise an eyebrow „Really? I though you were Bilbo the chimpanzee"

„Good one" Aeron commented

„Thank you, now seriously this is Aeron Blackheart, as long as you don't believe anything he tells you your safe"

„Hey! I'm not that bad!" the necromancer protested

„No, your worse. You don't lie for gain, you simply enjoy deceiving others"

Aeron smiled and melted into his shadow, shocking Kirche and Tabitha.

„I already explained to them what happened, so the question is what now" Louise said

„Well that's rather simple either they join you or they..." he made a cutting motion across his neck. Not that he wanted to kill children, but a good bluff worked wonders sometime, not to mention Aeron wont be bluffing.

Kirche griped her wand while Tabitha narrowed her eyes holding her staff at the ready „Ohhh and what makes you so sure you can take us on?" Kirche asked

Zanven smiled „Beside the fact I'm an elf and can overpower you alone? Maybe that Siesta and Louise are powerful mages in their own right, that we have an insane immortal mage that can crush elf's and demons like ants? Or maybe that we can make all your dreams come true if you chose to join us"

The threats were a bit over the top, and Kirche didn't believe him but the elf part alone made her go weak in her knees „E-E-elf?!"

He pushed his long blond hair revealing a pair of pointy ears

Louise felt a little smug that she could boast of having an elf for a follower „Thats enough Zanven, no need to terrify them"

„As you wish my lady" he bowed.

„S-so you said something about joining you?" stuttered Kirche

Louise smiled „Probe thoughts" by accessing her memories she found their most wanted desires

„Indeed, Kirche if you join me, you will be able to have as much fun as you had today in the future...even more, entire harems will be at your disposal...even elf's" she purred seductively.

Zanvens eyes grow large „L-Louis you don't me-„

„I didn't mean you, there are other elf's beside you" she defused his worries

Kirche beamed „Oh Id love that"

Louise turned to Tabitha and blushed „I-I would be very happy if you would stay by my side" she fidgeted „I even know a cure for your mother"

The blushing Tabitha nodded

Kirche was grinning from ear to ear „Great now we can go back to the important things...like sex! All five of us, six if we find the white haired stud!"

As soon as she stated her intend she grabbed Siestas and Zanvens butt making them Eeep or jump. The elf feeling danger to his chastity shadow walked to Aeron...its safer there, or rather the dangers are of a different nature.

Louise giggled, it was fun watching such powerful mages fall over themselves to escape Kirches grasp. She pulled three rings out of her pockets „Well my first attempt at crafting magic items was replicating the ring of reverse gender, do you want to test them?"

Kirche took one, Siesta took one and Tabitha took one, leaving a confused Louise „Why-" but her words were stopped when a male Tabitha kissed her while the other two boys dragged her back up stairs. Louise will have her hands full this night.

XXXX

_**HQ**_

The next week passed rather quickly for Louise's taste. LouiseB left back to the academy complaining about being left out. Aeron gave the pink brat an enchanted leather armor to replace her usual academy outfit. In his words it was not so much the problem of indecency (he didn't have one moral bone in his body) so much as it does not protect the individual from cuts, bruises, cold or fire. The leather armor was of simple design, black in color, extra padding on the important parts like the joints, and with a large number of pockets for small items she learned to use, like lock-picks.

Most of her training now was oriented in giving her some combat experience, Kirche and Tabitha helped there since they know how most fire and wind mages operated. Naturally after training they indulged themself's in Aerons cuisine and hot baths before their nightly activities. During that time she discovered that Aeron is an excellent musician, and she enjoyed it even if some songs he had were more on the morbid side.

Using Louise's portal Kirche and Tabitha easily moved from the academy and the newly dubbed Shadow Manor.

Being interested in enchanting an crafting Louise crafted herself a adamantium dagger with throw and return properties, that she sometimes couted in paralytic poison.

Her lands were developing rapidly. The mines that the zombies created were producing a lot of iron ore, and with Kirches help some of the world renowned Germanian smiths settled here. She practiced on those weapons her enchanting, resulting in a large number of masterwork steel swords with some basic enchantments, that gained a good price on the market. The peasants on the other hand were divided in their opinions. They welcomed all the public constructions she, Tabitha and Zanven made, but were less than happy with Aerons compulsory school for their children, calling it a waste of time for peasants, that they could better use their time working on the fields.

With Aerons corpse gathering network her army soon reached 12.000 most of them ghouls, the shadows, bodaks and wights were less numberous since only living could be transformed in them, but were sacrificed any orcs, bandits and criminals that were found. They will be used mostly in case of a war as night strike teams, infiltrating sleeping villages and turning the peasants into undead, weakening enemy economy and bolstering her ranks by eliminating the weakest links. The nobles can boast all they want, but when food becomes scarce and all commoners either switch sides or flee they will come to understand how much they depend on the simple farmer.

XXXX

_**T.A.M – classroom**_

The students sat in their seats. Professor Kaita sporting long, jet black hair, and a pitch black cape, his every move gave an unfriendly, uncomfortable feel. Although he was quite young, his unfriendly manner and cold look earned him ill repute from the students.

"Lets start the class. As everyone knows, my runic name is 'gust'. Kaita the Gust." He was enveloped with shocked stares, and satisfied by that, he continued. "Do you know what the most powerful element is, Zerbst?"

"Isn't that the 'Void' element?"

"I'm not asking for something of the legends. I want something realistic."

Kirche then confidently answered, "Then it has to be the fire element, Professor Kaita," along with her irresistible smile.

"Oh? Why do you think that?"

"Heat and passion can burn anything and everything, isn't that so?"

"I'm afraid that is not so." Kaita said as he pulled out his wand from his waist. "Lets give that a try. Attack me with your best fire elemental attack."

Kirche stood still in surprise. _What is this teacher doing?_

"What is it? I recall that you work best with fire elemental spells, am I right?" Kaita challenged.

"It won't be a simple scald." Kirche winked.

"No problem. Give me your best shot. Don't tell me the flaming red hair of the Zerbst family is there just for looks?"

Kirche's usual brisk smile disappeared. She retrieved her wand from her cleavage, her fiery, crimson long hair stood on their ends and crackled as if flames were erupting from them. She waved her wand, and from her extended right hand appeared a small fireball. As Kirche chanted her spell, the fireball expanded, resulting in a huge flaming sphere of a meter in diameter. The students ducked under their desks in panic. Her wrist turned and spiraled towards her chest, and released the fireball.

Kaita made no attempt to dodge the giant sphere of fire heading towards him. He raised his wand, and made sweeping waves as if swinging a sword. A raging gale suddenly began, and instantly scattered the huge fireball. It even knocked down Kirche, who was standing on the far other side of the room. "Everyone, I now tell you why the wind element is the strongest. It is quite easy. Wind can sweep up everything. Fire, water, and dirt alike cannot find footing when faced against strong enough winds." Kaita briskly announced. "Unfortunately, reality does not let me experiment this, but even Void would probably not stand. That is the wind element."

Kirche stood, displeased, and locked her arms. Kaita paid her no attention, and continued. "The unseen wind shall be the shield that protects everyone, and if needed, the lance that scatters enemies. And one more reason that wind is the most powerful is..." He raised his wand,

„What rubbish" the words cut his explanation as he turned and glared at the short pink haired girl siting in the back.

„So Miss Vallière thinks I teach rubbish, I presume you can do better then miss Zerbst here?" his anger boiling.

Louise smirked „Prepare yourself then! Firebrand!" from her wand a ball of flame flew towards him, Kaita repeated the sweeping motion with his wand but instead cutting the flame and dissipating it the ball detonated sending him fling backwards, beaten and singed but still much alive „Be grateful, this spell usually sends eight fireballs" her face turned serious „and next time when you counter fire don't use wind, it only gives more oxygen to my flames" _That will teach him, nobody touches Kirche...except me...well the original me...and Siesta...and Tabitha_.

The students could not believe what happened, Louise insulted and attacked a professor. The biggest ass kisser in the whole academy rebelled.

Kaita forced himself up reading his wand to lash out at the impudent brat.

However, at this very moment, the door to the classroom opened, and a nervous Colbert entered. He was dressed strangely, a huge, golden wig over his head. In close examination, his suit had the most intricate borders and decorations. _Why is he dressed like that?_ Everyone thought.

"Professor Colbert?" Kaita raised a brow.

"Ahhh! I'm sorry, please excuse the intrusion, Professor Kaita...are you alright?" commented Colbert after examining the professors robes

"Yes, yes I am it was just a demonstration. Now what do you want Colbert class is in session." Kaita tersely replied, staring at Colbert.

"Today's classes are henceforth canceled." Colbert sternly announced. Cheers emanated from the classroom. To stop them, Colbert waved with both arms, and continued. "I have something to tell everyone." Colbert exaggeratedly tilted his head back, causing his wig to slide off to the ground. The tense mood suddenly collapsed, as laughter enveloped the classroom.

Tabitha, who sat in front, pointed at his balded head and suddenly said, "Shiny."

The laughter grew more intense. Kirche laughed while rapping Tabitha's shoulder, "You can really talk when you speak up once in a while!"

Colbert blushed, and loudly yelled. "SILENCE! Only commoners laugh out loud! Nobles only covertly snicker with their heads down even if they find something funny! Otherwise, the royal court will question our school's educational results!" The classroom finally quieted to those words.

"All right. Everyone, today would be the most important day for Tristain Magical Academy. This is our great Founder Brimir's birthday, a very celebratory day." Colbert's face straightened, and he placed his arms behind his back.

"It is highly probable that His Majesty's daughter, the beautiful flower that we Tristainians can proudly boast to the rest of Halkeginia, Princess Henrietta, will, to our great fortune, pass by the Academy on her way back from visiting Germania."

Whispers and chatter filled the room.

"Therefore, we must not allow any slack. As this is very sudden news, we have begun preparations to receive her to the best of our abilities. Due to this, today's classes are hereby cancelled. All students, please put on your formal wear, and assemble at the main entrance." The students anxiously nodded in unison. Colbert nodded in return, and loudly announced, "This is an excellent opportunity to let Her Majesty the Princess know that everyone has matured as model nobles. Everyone must prepare to their best to let Her Majesty witness this fact! Dismissed!"

XXXX

_**Tristain – no GPS signal**_

Four golden-helmeted stallions led a carriage quietly on the road to the Magic Academy. The carriage was exquisitely adorned with gold, silver, and platinum sculptures. Those sculptures are the Royal Seals. On one of those, a unicorn crossed with a crystal staff signaled that this carriage belongs to Her Majesty the Princess.

One can find, upon closer examination, that the stallions drawing the carriage were not normal horses. They were unicorns like the one on the Royal Seal. Unicorns, which, by legend, would only allow the purest girls to ride them, were the best for leading the Princess's carriage.

The carriage's windows had ivy borders and coverings, as if disallowing the outside from looking in. Behind the Princess's carriage is Cardinal Mazarin, who has held all Tristain political authority with an iron grip since His Majesty passed away. His carriage's splendor does not lose to Her Majesty the Queen's. In fact, his was even more embellished. The difference of these two carriages on the road clearly shows who currently holds the top authority in Tristain.

Around the two carriages was the Imperial Guard, a division of mage guards. Composed of the most prominent noble families, the Magic Imperial Guard is the pride of all nobles in the country. Every noble male dreams of wearing the black cape of the Magic Imperial Guard, and every noble female dreams of being their brides. This Imperial Guard is Tristain's symbol of prosperity.

The road is paved with flowers as commoners cheered from the roadside. Every time the carriages passed them, one can hear "Long live Tristain! Long live Princess Henrietta!" and sometimes even "Long live Cardinal Mazarin!" though that pales in comparison to the Princess. He is not well-regarded as he is rumored to be of commoner blood. Some say it's jealousy to his position. As the carriage's curtains opened, as the crowds see the young Princess, the cheers get ever more passionate. She also returned a genial smile to the people.

XXXX

_**T.A.M**_

As the Princess went through the Academy gates, rows of students raised their staffs in unison, silent and serious. After the main gates were the doors to the central tower. Osman stood at attention there to receive the Princess. As the carriages stopped, servants rushed to lay down red carpet to its door. Guards tensely announced her arrival.

"Princess of the Kingdom of Tristain, Princess Henrietta has arrived."

The first out the door, however, was Cardinal Mazarin.

The students grunted, but Mazarin paid no attention, standing at the side of the carriage, holding the Princess's hand as she alighted. The students finally applauded. A youthful, flowery smile emerged from the Princess's face as she elegantly waved.

"That's the Princess of Tristain? Heh... I'm better looking than that." Kirche mumbled.

XXXX

That night...

Out of curiosity LouiseB was reading more on crafting magical items, when somebody knocked on the door.

The knocks were very orderly. It started with two long knocks, and then three short ones...

She put on her clothes, stood up, and opened the door.

Standing there was a girl, covered entirely in a black veil.

She looked around, and then walked in, closing the door behind her.

"...you are?" A shocked Louise barely managed to voice.

XXXX

_**HQ**_

Louise knew instantly of her clones discussion with the princess. And it was unforgivable that Henrietta would be forced into an arranged marriage with that filth of a Germanian emperor, the man actually imprisoned and starved to death all his relatives. „It seams Aeron will have to speed things up a bit, I will need that army sooner rather than later" she mused. In the mean time her clone will go to Albion while she and Zanven go cure Cattleya.

XXXX

_**T.A.M – front gates**_

LouiseB was waiting in front of the academy wrapped in a large black cloak. The morning air was fresh and its better to prevent getting sick on an important mission. The cloak also concealed her custom black leather armor and hood, but unlike Aerons that was simply normal high quality armor, this set she enchanted to increase her resistance to magic and reflexes, while her black leather high boots enchanted her agility, speed and constitution. She also carried a large number of rings, like poison immunity, mind shielding and regeneration.

She didn't have to wait long before she spotted and heard a griffin flying overhead, probably scouting the area. The beast soon landed in front of her, its rider probably thinking of surprising her. She remembered the man, her fiance, arranged by her parents. She grimaced, just like Aeron said she was sold by her own parents, a resource to be invested. He may be good looking, but that does not change the fact he was twice her age and she hardly knew him at all. Out of curiosity she decided to see what he thought about her „Probe thoughts".

She had to suppress her anger when she found out he was after her because of his theory she's a void mage, he had his doubts since void familiars were humanoids, and she got a snake, but the runes matched so he didn't give up hope to seduce a void mage and use her as a brood mare. Thankfully the time spend with Aeron has taught her some self control and knowledge in deception, and she will do just that. She will ensnare him, and when he is at his most vulnerable he will fall. Until then like Aeron said life is a carnival, don't forget to bring a mask or two.

Warde's extended a hand to Louise.

"Come over, my Louise."

Louise lowered her head in hesitation and bashfulness, just like a girl who is in love.

Louise, who was still hesitating, was suddenly carried up the griffin by Warde's.

With one hand on the reins and his wand in the other, Warde's shouted, "Well, onwards!"

It would take two days to reach Port City La Rochelle by horse from Tristain. The port city is situated on a deep and narrow gorge and because of this, it has a small population of three hundred. As La Rochelle is the gateway to Albion, the number of travelers is ten times more than the local population.

Boulders could be seen on both sides of the narrow mountain pathway. People had carved holes in the boulders, turning them into taverns and shops. Although the buildings look ordinary, upon closer inspection one can realize that all of them are carved out of a single rock, a feat done by Square ranked earth mages.

Since departing from the magical academy, Warde's' griffin had been endlessly moving towards their destination.

She had to admit her fiancé was quit devious, to bad he tends to underestimate others, especially if they are not nobles or mages. Overconfidence...another thing Aeron did his best to stomp down.

She suddenly had a devious idea „Warde's, can we please take a rest, I can't take any more flying today".

He thought about the request, he really didn't have anything against it, and it was already dark. He nodded and landed near the woods where he would pick some firewood. As he was occupied Louise used her time productively „Sending". Now she only needs Aeron to receive the message and do his part.

They were siting beside a small camp fire when a noise alerted Wards that someone was approaching. He quickly pulled out his wand „Hold who goes there!" he shouted

„My apologies, I'm only a tired traveler. I saw your fire from the road and hoped to find some shelter, it would be bad if some wolf's devoured me...just think about the poor animals, they would have indigestion for a week" the voice spoke from the darkness. Soon a silver haired man in minstrel clothing was revealed by the flames, he carried an instrument very similar to a violin strapped to his back only bigger „Is is possible to share your fire and company until dawn?"

Warde's wanted to refuse the stranger but Louise wanted to hear some stories of his travels since she has so little opportunity to leave the academy. Willing to act the noble and understanding fiance for now he agreed.

„Ah I can certainly tell a good story but my real skills are in my music, if you don't have anything against I would very much like to sing a song"

„Ohh that's wonderful!" Louise proclaimed happily much to Wards irritation the way his opinion was brushed aside by the child. He couldn't even ask for the strangers name since they would be required to return the same gesture, and its better for now to stay anonymous. _I would not want reconquista to find us, now would I_. He thought with a mental smirk.

The stranger seated himself on the ground and took the violin like instrument in his hands, similar how some commoners carried muskets.

Sweet dreams are made of this  
Who am I to disagree  
Travel the world and the seven seas  
Everybody looking for something  
Some of them want to use you  
Some of them want to get used by you  
Some of them want to abuse you  
Some of them want to be abused.

Sweet dreams are made of this  
Who am I to disagree  
Travel the world and the seven seas  
Everybody is looking for something  
Some of them want to use you  
Some of them want to get used by you  
Some of them want to abuse you  
Some of them want to be abu-

„Do you know any other songs? Some more well known ones like the Spring in Versailles or a Romanian chanson?" Wards asked irritably not liking what he was listening to.

Aeron felt insulted to be cut of during a song, a very good song „My apologies my lord but those songs are known by everybody, I simply wanted to present some of the less known masterworks to you"

Wards wanted to insist on a more traditional song but again Louise made his wishes void by wanting to hear an original one...he began to wonder if marriage feels this way...then again if and when they are married she will be trained like the bitch she is not to bother her master.

„Well since the young lady here wants to hear an original song, how about this one then"

Pandora's box is open wide,  
And there's no trace of hope inside-  
I feel the Devil taking hold,  
And as my heart grows black and cold,  
There's no place I can hide-  
Now I've lost all self-control,  
You've possessed my tortured soul-  
I feel your venom in my veins,  
And I can't escape these chains-  
Your black magic's taking it's toll-  
Now you've got your hooks in me,  
And there's no way to break free-  
I'll take your secret to my grave,  
For evermore, I'll be your slave,  
Spellbound-  
Woe... Woe... I can't break free  
From this hold you've got on me,  
'Cause I'm Spellbound-

By the pricking of my thumb,  
Something wicked this way comes-

The witching hour's drawing near,  
And my tragic fate is clear-  
You've got your claws beneath my skin,  
And I feel your poison sinkin' in,  
As I face my darkest fear-  
And as I stare into your eyes,  
There's one final thing I realize-  
I'll take your secret to my grave,  
Beyond death, I'll be your slave-  
Spellbound-  
Woe... Woe...  
Your venom's coursing through my veins,  
And I can't escape these chains  
'Cause I'm spellbound-  
Woe... Woe... I can't break free  
From this hold you've got on me,  
'Cause I'm spellbound-

XXXX

_**Tristain, City of La Rochelle**_

Wards couldn't keep the twitch from his right eye, the bloody minstrel kept him and Louise awake the whole night before he left with the dawn. The pink pest maybe didn't care, but his skills suffered under fatigue, it would be to ironic if she got hurt because he was not at his best. But luckily their first stop was near.

In front of them, sandwiched between two cliffs, was the port city La Rochelle, dazzling with lights.

Tired from riding all day, they had decided to rest at the fanciest hotel in the city of La Rochelle, the Goddess's Temple. It was a very fancy place even for a noble. The dining tables and floor were both made from the same marble and the floor was so clean that one could see their own face on it.

Warde's and Louise stayed in the best room in the hotel. They wondered who designed the room. There was an enormous four-poster bed with delicate lace hanging from the top. Warde's sat down at the table, opened a bottle of wine and poured himself a cup. He chugged it down and said, "Why don't you sit down and have a cup as well, Louise?"

Louise sat down as well. He poured one for Louise and refilled his own. He then raised his cup and said, "Cheers!" Louise however held hers in her hands and bowed down her head.

Warde's asked, "Did you keep the princess's letter safe?"

Then Louise nodded and said, "The letter is still safe. Are you worried that we might not be able to get the letter from the prince of Albion?"

"Yes, I am very worried." he answered.

Louise arched her eyebrows and said, "Don't worry; it will be fine because I'll always be with you." She almost gagged how that sounded.

"That's right; if you're here there will definitely be no problems. It was always that way."

Louise nodded in reply.

"In that case, let's go to bed, you are already tired right?"

Suddenly, Warde came close to Louise, wanting to kiss her.

Instantly, Louise's body stiffened. Then she pushed Warde's away.

"Louise?"

"I'm sorry... But, things like...that..."

Louise pridefully stared at Warde's. He smiled bitterly and shook his head.

"I am not in a hurry, remember I will always be there to protect you"

Louise lowered her head again. She had to suppress her laughter, it seams even a con-artist can be deceived when he thinks his prey is gullible.

She remembered on thing Aeron quoted during training.

_Innocence invites protection, yet we might be smarter to protect ourselves against it..._

Tomorrow they head to Albion and to betrayal.

XXXX

_**Halkegenian airspace – radar malfunction**_

Looking down the ship, she could see floating clouds. The ship sailed right above them.

"Albion in sight!" the lookout bellowed.

All there was were clouds. Ground was nowhere to be seen.

From between the clouds she could see dark land. It continued to expand under them. Mountains carved the landscape, and rivers flowed down them.

The lookout yelled again, "Ship approaching starboard side!"

A ship was, as he said, approaching, and it was many measures larger than the one they're on. Cannons jutted out of holes on its portside.

Louise frowned.

"Not good. A rebel... or is that a noble vessel?" Behind deck, Warde's and the captain looked at where the lookout was pointing.

Black paint signaled that the ship was made for war. Twenty or so cannons aimed at them.

"Albion nobility? Tell us if they ship cargo like we do."

The lookout hoisted the signal flags as the captain told. The black ship did not respond.

The co-captain entered running, his face pale, and reported to the captain, "That ship doesn't have any nationality flags!"

"Then... are they pirates?"

"Can't be wrong! I heard they got really active after the rebellion began..."

"Run! Full speed!" The captain wanted to run from them as quickly as possible, but they were too late. The black ship began to sail parallel to them, and fired a shot directly ahead of them.

**BANG!** The cannonball disappeared into the clouds. The black ship's mast then hoisted a four-color signal.

"They're ordering us to stop, captain."

The captain winced in his decision. It's not like his ship was completely unarmed, but all they had were three movable cannons on deck, which were no more useful than decorations when up against a full broadside of over twenty pointed at them. The captain looked at Wardes for help.

"All my magic's used on the ship. We can only do what they say." Wardes answered calmly.

The captain mouthed, "There goes my fortune," and gave the order.

"Wrap sails. Stop the ship."

"We are pirates! Do not resist!" a man aboard the black ship yelled with a horn.

On the black ship's port, men lined up with bows and rifles. They aimed and shot hooked lines, grabbing onto their ship's starboard. More strong men, about ten of them wielding axes and curved sabers, slid over the ropes and onto the ship.

Warde's' griffin, which was sitting on front of the deck, was frightened of the pirates and growled. Its head was then covered with blue-white smoke, and it fell onto the deck, fast asleep.

"A sleeping spell... so they do have mages."

At an order, the pirates landed on their ship. One of them was dressed quite exquisitely. He wore a shirt that looked like it used to be white, but was dirtied black from sweat and lubricant. One could see his strong and well-tanned chest muscles in the shirt's openings. A patch covered his left eye. This man seemed to be the pirates' leader.

"Where's the captain?" He commanded in a rough tone, looking around him.

"Me." The captain, shaking but still trying to keep composure, raised his hand.

The leader walked to him in large steps, took out his saber and rapped it at the captain's face. "What's the ship's name and what does it carry?"

"Tristainia's _Marie Galante_. The cargo is sulfur."

A gasp came from the pirates. The leader sniggered, picking up the captain's hat and putting it on his head.

"I'm buying everything on this ship then... the price being your lives!"

Louise wanted to congratulate him on his excellent haggling skills, but decided against it...it would be to out of character so far.

The captain shook in shame. Then, the leader noticed Louise and Wardes standing on deck.

"Oho, we have noble guests!" The leader approached Louise and raised her chin with his hand. "We have a beauty here. Would you like to be our dishwasher?"

_Dishwasher? Like letting her a foreign element in the kitchen where they make all the food?_ Already making a mental list of what poison goes good with what dish, if they have to die at least they can die from a good seasoning.

"Alright, boys, take them all away. We can get a hell lot of ransom for this!"

XXXX

Louise and Wards found themselves in the ships brig. There wands taken, their hands and feet remained unrestrained. Without their wands, mages, were harmless, that was the pirates logic, but it sadly for them didn't apply to her, and she suspected neither for Wards, the man is to much of a snake to be caught so easily.

In the background, one could see wine barrels, cereal sacks and gunpowder casks disorderly thrown around. Heavy cannonballs were piled up in the corner of the room.

Wardes explored such cargo with a great interest.

A pirate entered the prison area "What business do you have in Albion?" he asked

"Traveling." Louise said in a decisive voice, putting her hand on the waist.

"Tristain's noble, why would you travel to Albion? Why would you be sightseeing in such place?"

"I do not have to tell you such things." She actually hated acting like her former self but acting politely would be, to suspicious.

At that time, the door opened again. This time it was a thin pirate standing before them. The pirate looked at them three with a piercing eyes and asked.

"Good evening, are you the aristocrats going to Albion?"

Louise did not answer silently mumbling „Probe Thoughts"

"Oi oi, judging from your silence it's truth. Although we do not look like that we respect nobles, thanks to the aristocrats our business goes well."

"But, isn't this a warship of rebels?" she played along, she already knew what game was at play here.

"No no, though we are employed, we are involved in the fifty-fifty relationship with both sides. We are related to both factions. So how is it? Are you nobles? If it is true, then you will be let go free in the closest port."

"How dare you have anything to do with those dirty rebels? Do not disregard Albion nobles. I myself am one of the noble families. Albion is still a kingdom, as the royal family is still a legitimate government in Albion. Because I am an aristocrat who comes here on behalf of Tristain, I am, in other words, an ambassador. Therefore, I demand an ambassador's treatment from you."

The pirate laughed after seeing such scene.

"I'll go to report to the Boss then."

The pirate left laughing.

The door opened again, it was the same thin pirate.

"The boss calls."

XXXX

The aisle passed up the narrow stairs and took the three to a splendid room built on the upper part of the deck.

The Boss... apparently, the chief of the pirates.

As the door opened, one could see a gorgeous dinner table and one pirate sitting at its end, playing with a cane that had big crystal attached on top of it. Seemingly, he was a mage himself. The Boss' room was very different from what one would expect from a pirate.

He looked intensively at Louise who entered the room. The thin pirate who had brought her there poked her slightly from behind. "Hey, you, you are standing in front of the Boss, so greet him properly." However, Louise just stood there glaring at the Boss as he smiled at her. _What the hell?! This is his disguise? A cheap pirate stereotype knock off?!_

"Ah, I like a strong willed woman, you are not a child at all. "

"I demand the treatment of an ambassador, our business is only with Albions royalty" She played along

After some lengthy verbal game of cat and mouse, where she tried to direct the prince to ask the right questions and reach the right conclusions, without the need of showing that she knew of this charade all along. It would open to many questions how she gained that knowledge, questions she wasn't willing to answer and would put the mission under jeopardy because of distrust.

"I knew that Tristanian nobles were weird but not so helplessly. Oh my, my stomach hurts." Said the Boss as he stood up laughing.

"Oh, I am sorry. As a noble I should properly introduce myself as well."

The pirate who was laughing loudly suddenly stood up straight.

He removed his black curly hair from his head. It seemed to be a wig. He also took of the black eye patch, and also removed his fake beard. Before them now was standing a young person with blond hair.

"I am a general of the Albion Royal Air Force. Also the commander of our country fleet. Though to tell the truth this warship named "Eagle" is the only ship in our fleet. A powerless fleet. Oh dear, even people from the street could easily beat it."

The young person bowed while introducing himself.

"I am the prince of the Albion's Kingdom, Wales Tudor."

Louise's mouth opened wide while Wardes watched the prince with great interest.

Wales smiled with a charming smile and moved a chair for Louise to sit.

"Welcome to Albion, Ambassador. Now, lets talk about your message."

However, Louise was still speechless. She just stood there dumbfounded, unable to move.

"Why do I dress up as a pirate? To hide myself? No, the rich rebels sent a lot of support to rebellion, and it is a basic war tactic to cut enemy's supply line. Even if I have to do that in such an undignified way as to dress myself up as a dirty pirate."

Wales said laughingly.

"No, it was really impolite to treat an ambassador like that. But you have to admit you don't look much like a royal messenger yourself. And I never thought about support from other country's nobles. Yet I still should apologize."

Even after Wales' words, Louise's mouth still kept opening and closing without uttering a single sound. She had to make this look convincing.

"We brought a secret letter from Her Highness Princess Henrietta." Wardes said while gracefully bowing.

"Ohh, from Her Highness. And you are?"

"Captain of Tristain's Griffin Knights, Viscount Wardes."

After that, Wardes introduced Louise to Wales.

"And this is the ambassador sent by Her Highness from the Vallière family, Your Highness."

"Indeed! Such a splendid noble. And I only have my ten bodyguards to greet you, such a miserable greeting. Then, do you still have the secret letter?"

Louise handed Wales the letter and bowed.

After looking at the letter lovingly, Wales kissed the signature. Then, the seal was carefully removed, the paper inside was taken out, and Wales began to read.

For some time he kept on reading it with serious expression.

"Is the princess marrying? That beautiful Henrietta. My beloved... cousin."

Wardes bowed silently, with an affirmative expression. Wales dropped the glance to the letter again and smiled when the last line was read.

"Understood. The princess is informing me with this that she wants you to return that letter. And more importantly, the princess also hopes that I return a letter from her. Seems like it."

Louise's face beamed with pleasure.

"However, it's not in my hands right now. It's in the castle in Newcastle. I didn't want to bring the princess' letter to this pirate ship." Wales said laughingly.

"So, even though it's troublesome, please come with me to Newcastle."

* * *

_**Albion, Newcastle – Wales room**_

The whole trip to Newcastle was uneventful as far as Louise was concerned, when they arrived they followed Wales to his room where he handed over Henrietta's letter.

"This is the letter I got from the princess. I am returning it as well."

"Thank you."

Louise received the letter while bowing deeply.

"The Eagle will take you back to Tristain tomorrow, as we won't be using it in the battle."

Louise looked down. She knew that 300 against 50000 is a lost battle. She could maybe win the battle for the prince...but a prince that can't keep his crown does not deserve it, it would be better if he simply became Henrietta's property.

Louise's shoulders dropped when she bowed deeply to Wales before leaving the room.

Wardes stayed behind and bowed to Wales.

"Oh do you have some more business, Viscount?"

"There is one favor I would like to ask, Milord."

"Ask."

Wardes whispered into the ear of Wales, who smiled.

"Ah such a lovely request, it will be my pleasure."

XXXX

_**Newcastle - chapel**_

The next day, in a chapel, where the Founder Brimir's portrait hung, Crown Prince Wales was waiting for the bridegroom and the bride to appear. There were no other people around, as everybody was busy preparing for the upcoming battle. Wales also had planned, once the ceremony was over, to prepare for the battle as well. Wales was dressed in the Crown Prince's formal uniform. He wore a bright purple mantle, the symbol of the royal family, and a hat with seven colored wings, the symbol of Albion's royal family.

The door opened, Louise and Wardes had arrived. Wards barged into her room yesterday with a marriage proposal planing to achieve multiple goals simultaneously, even if Louise didn't end up a void mage he would still gain her families lands once her parents and sisters are eliminated. Louise didn't need much persuasion to accept Wards proposal, she only had to act a bit embarrassed bur reassured by his words.

Wardes, after telling Louise that it was "Time to do the wedding now", put on a bridal veil borrowed from Albion's royal family on Louise's head. The veil was nicely made, and the flowers, that were eternally fresh due to magic, made it look indescribably beautiful.

Then, Wardes replaced Louise's black mantle with a white one, or rather he wanted to but a simple illusion made her look like she was wearing it. Naturally she didn't let him dress her, Aeron would have made her run laps around Tristain if she dared to depend on others for such mediocre tasks, unless every single bone in her body was broken...and probably if it was he would simply glare at her ending any comment with a „walk it off".

Wardes and Louise stood up in front of Wales, who was standing below the image of the Founder Brimir, wearing his official uniform. Wardes, who himself was wearing his usual clothes and a magical mantle, bowed his head.

"Well then, let's start the ceremony." said the prince

"Bridegroom, Viscount Jean-Jacques Francis de Wardes. Do you take this girl as your wife, and swear to respect and love her in the name of the Founder Brimir?"

Wardes nodded solemnly and grasped the cane with his left hand, holding it out in front of his chest.

"I swear."

Wales looked at Louise and smiled encouragingly.

"Bride, the third daughter of the Duke de La Vallière, Louise Françoise le Blanc de La Vallière…"

Wales read the oath in a clear voice.

„I refuse" she said

"Bride?"Wales looked at her direction.

Wales looked doubtful at the sudden change of events.

"Bride, this is not the marriage you want?"

"Yes, that's how it is. I want to apologize to both of you, for my rudeness, it was a painful decision to make, but I do not want to marry."

An angry red blush quickly spread on Wardes face. Wales turned to him and said in an embarrassed, doubtful and regretful voice.

"Viscount, I am terribly sorry, but the bride doesn't want for this ceremony to continue."

However, Wardes, didn't pay any attention to Wales, and took Louise's hand.

"…you are just nervous. Dear Louise. You cannot be seriously refusing my offer."

"I'm sorry, Wardes. I yearned for you. Maybe… maybe even loved you once. However, it is different now."

Then, Wardes gripped Louise's shoulder. The expression in his eyes changed. Gone was the usual kindness from his face, replaced with chilly cold of a reptile.

Wardes shouted in a feverish tone.

"The world, Louise! I will rule the world! You are necessary for that!"

"…I, I am not needed for that."

Wardes extended both his hands, drawing Louise closer.

"You are necessary for me! Your ability! Your power!"

Wales, who couldn't stand Wardes' threatening attitude towards Louise any longer, stepped in.

"Viscount…, that's enough. Behave like a gentlema…"

However, Wardes struck away Wales' extended hand.

"Shut up!"

Wales stood still, surprised by Wardes words. Wardes grabbed Louise's arm with his hand "Louise! You are necessary for me!"

Wales put a hand on Wardes' shoulder, trying to pull him away, but Wardes pushed Wales instead, who fell on the ground. Wales face turned red, and, after standing up again, he pulled out his cane.

"You, what impoliteness! It's an insult! Viscount, move your hands away from la Vallière right now! Or else my magical blade will tear you up!"

Only then Wardes' hand finally let Louise go. A kind smile spread on his lips. However, the smile was forced and obviously fake.

"Even if I ask you this way you won't do it? Louise. My Louise."

"No" she said

Wardes looked up at the sky.

"And I made such great efforts, to capture your feelings during this journey…"

Wardes spread his hands widely, while throwing his head backwards.

"Well, it can't be helped. I guess I will have to give up on this goal."

"Goal?" she asked feigning ignorance

The corners of Wardes' lips went up, forming an ill looking smile.

"That's right. There were three goals for me to achieve during this travel. Sadly, I achieved only two of them"

"Achieve? Two? What are you talking about?" Louise asked

Wardes put out his right hand in front holding up three fingers, and bent his forefinger.

"First one was you, Louise. I had to get you. However, it seems that I won't be able to accomplish that."

"Obviously not!"

Wardes smiled, bending his middle finger.

"The second goal, Louise, is in your pocket - Henrietta's letter."

"And, the third…"

After hearing Wardes saying "Henrietta's letter" Wales understood everything and pulled out his cane and started to chant a spell.

However, Wardes had already prepared two complete spells before.

Wardes aimed his wind cane that started shining and with the tip pierced Wales chest.

"D-damn you…'Reconquista'…"

Blood suddenly gushed out of Wales mouth.

Wardes muttered while piercing his shining cane deeper into Wales chest.

"The third, is your damned life, Wales."

With that, Wales fell to the ground.

"Hold Person"

Wardes found himself frozen in place, unable to even blink _W-what happened to me?!_ He could hear the other turncoats hidden in the loyalist forces assault their former comrades, and by surprise quickly decimated their unsuspecting victims.

He heard Louise giggle „How easily you were all deceived, so secure in your plans, never even expecting treachery. Horrid wilting!" he never saw what happened, but he heard screams, and then silence.

After discarding the illusion on her clothing Louise quickly approached the now unconscious Wales, if left untreated he will bleed to death in minutes, so she pulled a red vial of Cure Critical Wounds from her bag of holding and forced it down his throat. Examining the stab wound, she smirked in satisfaction when she saw only smooth skin. Leaving the now sleeping prince she looked Wards in the eyes.

His facial expression didn't betray much, but his eyes showed confusion, frustration, anger...and fear. She could almost taste it. _I think my original spends too much time with Aeron, we are starting to develop an unhealthy amount of questionable character traits_.

_Whats happening to me! Why cant I move, did Louise cast this spell on me? And where are the bloody reinforcements!_ Wards thought, looking at the smirking Louise as she caressed his chin with her hand. It infuriated him that a mere child treated him as he was beneath her.

„My, Wards why the silent treatment? Cat got your tongue?" she laughed, enjoying herself „But don't worry, I wont harm you, I still have some use for you, your position in the reqonquista will give you knowledge about many of their secrets and plans, and I wish to know them all" she purred still gliding her hand across his cheek.

Wardes on the other hand could not believe this was the same Louise he knew, the same naive girl that followed him on this mission. But if she believed that he would simply roll over on her command then she was still a fool, as soon as this spell ends he will teach her the meaning of pain._I will not bow to a spoiled brat._

Her smile turned into a grin „My my such naughty thoughts you have my dear fiance, were the Galian whores such good teachers? Perhaps I should visit them as well, they seem to have some interesting techniques. And don't worry, your will is not your own, living or dead you will serve me"

A flash of light revealed Aeron appearing in his minstrel disguise before them.

After looking over the shivered corpses, their dried faces of terror and agony he focused on the two „Greetings my lord, has life been treating you well" the man asked doing a mock bow

Louise smirked „Cant you tell Aeron? He is absolutely paralyzed with happiness"

Aeron laughed, and shifted back in his assassin form „Ohhh Louise, your such a tease"

Wards on the other hand didn't find this situation very funny, not only was Louise making fun of him, that irritating minstrel also appeared...and much to his frustration he had to admit he never suspected this betrayal. If he was able he would be gritting his teeth about being deceived. He prided himself about being an excellent spy...and still he failed to see it coming.

Being able to read Wards thoughts she decided to give him some last minute advice „Ohhh do you feel betrayer by me? For there to be betrayal, there would have to have been trust first my dear Wards"

Aeron was forcing himself not to embrace his young apprentice _Ich liebe den Verrat_

„Wards I would like you to meet my familiar Aeron Blackheart, he is a sociopath and a bastard but makes on hell of a cookberry pie " She turned to Aeron „If you are finished enjoying his suffering, do the ritual already, the rebel forces will arrive here in 20 minutes"

Aeron wipped an imaginary tear „Such a cruel master I have, not a moment of rest for her poor servant" he pointed his finger at Wards „Enslave"

Louise grinned „Kneel"

Wards really didn't want to obey, but against all his will he went to his knees „What is thy biding mistress"

Louise enjoyed this very much, she pulled Henrietta's letter from her pocket „You will return to Cromwell and deliver him the letter as you were ordered" he took the letter felling confused, _why was she betraying Tristain, wasn't she on the princesses side,_ then Louise pulled a ring with her other hand „This is a ring of sending, you can use it three times a day to send me instant messages, with that you will keep me informed about any Albion and Galian plots. To activate it you only have to formulate a message and then tap the ring three times and say Sending, as simple as that. As for the prince, tell them you mortally wounded him but he was rescued by Tristain reinforcements, the chance of his survival depending if they had a skilled healer close by. Now leave us"

„Yes mistress" Wards answered as he stood up on his feet, using his levitating spell to leave the chapel through the window.

Louise turned to Wales who was still unconscious, she grabbed him by the shoulder „Teleport" leaving Aeron behind.

The necromancer turned to the corpses that were decorating the chapel, he would love to leave them for shock effect but it would raise question „Better not to reveal to much Incendiary cloud" instantly the dehydrated husks turned to ash, leaving only the metal to melt. Feeling quite pleased with the mission he began to hum...and then sing.

I'm the fear that keeps you waked  
I'm the shadows on the wall  
I'm the monsters they become  
I'm the nightmare in your skull  
I'm a dagger in your back  
And extra turn upon the rack  
I'm the quivering of your heart  
A stabbing pain, a sudden start

And it's so easy when you're evil  
This is the life, you see  
The Devil tips his hat to me  
I do it all because I'm evil  
And I do it all for free  
Your tears are all the pay I'll ever need

And I do it all for free  
Your tears are all the pay I'll ever need  
And I do it all for free  
Your tears are all the pay I'll ever need

When the last of the armor and weapons melted into puddles Aeron satisfied with the results also teleported back to the mansion.

When the rebel forces finally entered the castle, only silence greeted them. They were told that more of their comrades would welcome them in the chapel with the royals dead at their feet, but nobody was there, only the stench of burned flesh and slabs of quickly cooling metal on the floor.

* * *

1: Shadow of the Void

2: The Shadows of war

3: All good things come to a end

4: Exodus

5: The mystery of black hearts

6: Welcome to Moonreef!

7: Der Marionettenspieler

8: Igne Natura Renovatur Integra

9: The endgame

END

A/N: My chapters are a bit longer then the norm but that's how it is, and that also means it will update slowly so don't hold your breath for the next chapter (Only have 62 pages from 100 minimum). Not to mention that English is not my native language so it takes a lot of time to correct the spelling and grammar errors.

I would appreciate it if any inconsistencies in the story, grammar mistakes, faulty character descriptions, faulty logic or incorrect information found in the story would be pointed out. The quality of my stories will depend heavily on the readers to alert me to such mistakes so I can correct it and prevent it in the future.

I was informed that the sexual part of the story is poorly made, since it is not my strong point I will avoid any and all things related to intimacy except hint at it. But it was not put here out of fancy, the Louise-Kirche-Siesta-Tabitha intimat bond is actually a rather important part of the story and removing it would make the whole story irrelevant. The purpose of this will be explained in chapter 9.

It was also brought to my attention that I rushed the character development. That is unfortunately true. I tried to much to follow the correct timeline that I forgot that I could actually stretch Louise's training for a month to give more character development. That will be rectified much later I'm afraid as I have my hands rather full with the Shadows of War, since the story will be less canon from here on. The good news is, I didn't just make Louise do a 180* out of fun. The FoZ characters are under magical influence, that will be explained in chapter 2.


End file.
